Netflix made a huge bet on remaking the French hit Dix pour cent for an Indian audience, and honestly, the reaction to Calling My Agent: Bollywood was... messy. If you've spent any time on Film Companion or scrolled through the more cynical corners of Letterboxd, you probably saw the initial wave of "cringe" comments. People hated it. Or they loved to hate it. But now that the dust has settled and we can look at the show away from the shadow of the original French masterpiece, it's clear we missed something important about how the Indian film industry actually functions.
The show stars Aahana Kumra, Ayush Mehra, Rajat Kapoor, and Soni Razdan as the four agents at ART, a talent agency in Mumbai. It follows the exact skeletal structure of the French version, but it tries—sometimes successfully, sometimes clumsily—to inject a bit of that chaotic "Bolly" energy.
The Problem with Comparisons
The biggest hurdle Calling My Agent: Bollywood faced wasn't the acting or the production value. It was the "Original Is Better" brigade.
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Look, Call My Agent! (the French version) is sophisticated. It’s chic. It feels like a glass of expensive Bordeaux in a Parisian cafe. When Shaad Ali decided to direct the Indian remake, he didn’t go for the same muted, dry wit. Instead, we got something louder. Brighter. More frantic. For many viewers who had already binged the original on Netflix, this felt like a downgrade. But here's the thing: Mumbai isn't Paris.
The Indian film industry is built on ego, superstition, and legacy. You can't tell a story about Bollywood agents without acknowledging that a star might refuse to work because their astrologer said the movie title starts with the wrong letter. The remake gets this. It understands the specific brand of neurosis that exists in Bandra and Juhu.
While the French agents were fighting over arthouse cinema and prestige, the characters in Calling My Agent: Bollywood are often fighting just to keep a crumbling system from collapsing under the weight of several massive, conflicting egos.
Real Cameos and the Blur of Fiction
One of the coolest parts of the show—and something that actually ranks it high for anyone interested in industry gossip—is the cameos.
We saw Farah Khan, Jackie Shroff, Tigmanshu Dhulia, and Richa Chadha playing versions of themselves. This is where the show shines. When Jackie Shroff is on screen talking about his "Bhidu" persona while worrying about a script, it feels authentic. It’s meta. It’s the kind of self-deprecating humor we don't often see from big Indian stars.
- Farah Khan brings her signature bluntness, making fun of the very industry that made her a legend.
- Richa Chadha and Ali Fazal deal with the "power couple" dynamics that the paparazzi obsess over.
- Wamiqa Gabbi represents the hungry, talented outsider trying to navigate a world that values lineage over craft.
The struggle is real. Honestly, the way the show depicts the "talent agent" as a glorified babysitter is the most accurate thing about it. In Hollywood or Paris, an agent might just negotiate a contract. In Bollywood, the agent is the one making sure the star wakes up on time, doesn't tweet something stupid, and eats their specific diet food.
Why It Didn't Hit the "Squid Game" Level of Viral
Critics like Anupama Chopra and Rahul Desai were pretty split on this one. The common complaint was that it felt too "glossy."
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Everything in the show looks expensive. The offices are impeccable. The clothes are designer. For a show that's supposed to be about the "behind-the-scenes" grind, it sometimes feels a bit too much like a Karan Johar set. This disconnect hurt its credibility with audiences who wanted a gritty look at the industry.
Also, the pacing is fast. Really fast.
Sometimes, Calling My Agent: Bollywood moves so quickly that the emotional beats don't land. You’ve got Rajat Kapoor playing the cold, calculating senior agent, and he’s brilliant, but the script doesn't always give him the room to breathe. The tension between his professional life and his secret daughter (played by Ayush Mehra) is supposed to be the emotional anchor, but it often gets sidelined for the "Star of the Week" plotline.
The Nuance of the Indian Talent Manager
If you talk to real talent managers in Mumbai—people from agencies like Matrix or Kwan—they’ll tell you the show is about 60% accurate.
The screaming matches? Real.
The backstabbing over a 10% commission? Absolutely real.
The glamorous parties where everyone hates each other? That's just Tuesday.
But the show misses the sheer drudgery of the job. It makes it look like agents spend all day in high-rise offices drinking lattes. In reality, being an agent in the Indian film world is about sitting in vanity vans for twelve hours waiting for a director to finish a shot so you can ask for a cheque. It's a lot less glamorous than Netflix makes it look.
Is a Season 2 Actually Happening?
This is the question everyone is asking. Netflix has been quiet.
Usually, when a show doesn't "break the internet," the streaming giants get cold feet. However, Calling My Agent: Bollywood had a decent completion rate, meaning people who started it usually finished it. That’s a key metric for Netflix.
There is so much more ground to cover. We haven't seen the show tackle the rise of South Indian cinema (the "Pan-India" phenomenon) or how AI is scaring the living daylights out of character actors. If the writers can pivot away from the French scripts and start writing original stories specifically about the 2026 landscape of Indian media, they’d have a massive hit on their hands.
What You Can Learn from the ART Agents
If you're an aspiring actor or someone looking to get into the business side of entertainment, there are actually some "unintentional" lessons in the show.
- Relationships are Currency: In Bollywood, it’s not just about what you know, but who you’ve helped when they were on their way down.
- The "No" is Never Final: As Soni Razdan’s character shows, a rejected contract is just the start of a longer negotiation.
- Damage Control is a Full-Time Job: Most of what an agent does is stop fires before the media sees the smoke.
Making Sense of the Criticism
It’s easy to call the show "bad" because it’s a remake. But remakes are a staple of global cinema. The Office was a remake. The Departed was a remake.
The failure—if you want to call it that—of Calling My Agent: Bollywood was its refusal to be truly "ugly." Bollywood is messy. It’s dirty. It’s loud. By trying to keep the sleek, sophisticated vibe of the French original, the show felt a bit like a person wearing a tuxedo to a dahi handi festival. It’s a bit out of place, even if they look good.
That said, for a casual weekend watch, it’s incredibly entertaining. If you stop comparing it to Camille Cottin’s performance in the original and just watch it for what it is—a soapy, fast-paced, star-studded look at the world’s largest film industry—it’s actually quite fun.
Actionable Takeaways for Viewers and Aspiring Insiders
- Watch the original first: If you want to appreciate the adaptation choices, watch the French Dix pour cent on Netflix. It provides a baseline for the character archetypes.
- Pay attention to the background: The show uses real locations in Mumbai. If you're looking to understand the "geography" of the industry, look at where these offices and cafes are located.
- Follow the guest stars' real careers: To get the most out of the meta-humor, you need to know who the guest stars are. For example, understanding Tigmanshu Dhulia’s reputation as a "serious" director makes his scenes much funnier.
- Analyze the "Agent" dynamic: If you're interested in the business, notice how the agents handle "The Talent." It’s a masterclass in ego management, even if it is dramatized for TV.
The show might not be perfect, but it’s a rare window into a world that usually hides behind a PR-friendly curtain. It's about time we stop hating on it for what it isn't and start enjoying it for the chaotic, star-obsessed mess that it is. Just like Bollywood itself.