Netflix’s Indian Matchmaking, which followed Sima Taparia as she tried to find matches for Indian and Indian-origin people in the United States, created quite the stir when it came out. The show has brought a lot of interest and attention to the participants who engaged in the matchmaking process as well. And with public attention came questions, opinions and speculation aplenty on social media.
Pradhyuman Maloo, a participant on the show, got a taste of this too. In a recent interview to social media page Humans of Bombay (HOB), Pradhyuman spoke about how he came to work in jewelry designing by watching his mother navigate the male-dominated space and becoming more hands-on, which sparked his creativity.
He also addressed what it’s been like dealing with people questioning his sexuality on social media. HOB, which has accounts on Facebook and Instagram, is modelled on Humans of New York, a renowned social media account which features stories of people living in the city.
Pradhyuman is shown on Indian Matchmaking as someone who is passionate about his work, loves dabbling in cooking exquisite dishes (including his peri peri foxnuts, which smoked thanks to the liquid nitrogen he put in them), and also has an extensive wardrobe. In his interview with HOB, Pradhyuman said that he felt angry and resentful when people started questioning his sexuality because he did things that didn’t fit into the narrow patriarchal mould associated with cis straight men.
“Unsolicited comments assumed I was gay or bisexual & urged me to come out of the closet. I felt anger & resentment, but I gained my composure & questioned their reasoning. I tried to understand the mind-set of a ‘hater’, only to realize that they’d based their assumptions on my interests in fashion, cooking & the societal pressure of taking time to choose a life-partner. All I could think of was, ‘Are men not supposed to be creative?’, ‘Are men not supposed to like fashion?’, ‘Can men not cook?’, ‘Do only women belong in the kitchen?’” Pradhyuman told HOB.
Pradhyuman said he is straight but was stereotyped because of the narrow mindset of the Indian society. “I even thought of the alternate scenario: What if the person in question really was gay? What if they’d been forced out of the closet with no consent of their own? That thought frightened me. Were these haters ready to take the blame for the consequences of their words? As a society we have belittled the LGBTQ community by using them as a tool of mockery,” he said.
He added that the past month had been a lesson for him in how the world perceives men, and how it judges them for not being ‘manly’ enough. Pradhyuman had a message for men too – “I want other men to know that it’s okay to be who you are & do what you love. Stereotypical masculinity is not the rent we need to pay to exist in this world. I just have one question, ‘Can men not be beautiful?’”
This is not the first time Pradhyuman has addressed this. In an earlier Instagram post, he talked about his experience of filming for Indian Matchmaking, what happened with him and Rushali (the woman he met on the show as a potential match) after the show, if he had really rejected 150 proposals, and even why his own picture was on the doorknob of his room. In this post, he said, "And for those of you who are curious - I am not gay nor bisexual. I absolutely love Foxnuts and my door knob is just a creative photo frame reminding me of two life-death experiences."
Read the post here: