Meet the New Aparna

It’s been two years since we last saw Aparna Shewakramani on Indian Matchmaking. Last season, she was framed as the brutally honest Houston-based lawyer looking for love. In Season 2, Shewakramani is back on Netflix’s hit reality show, this time in a new city and with a new approach to finding love. 

“There was a huge grieving process this year. You have to grieve the life that you thought you were going to have,” she says in the opening episode, sitting in a New York City apartment after a self-care montage of her meditating and journaling. Like many of us, Shewakramani had a plan for her life that included getting married, having kids, buying a home — all by the time she was 36. But those goals have yet to become a reality. In response, Shewakramani went through feelings of grief, defeat, and, admittedly, anger. “I was a little angry that life didn’t just give me what I wanted,” she says.

But what she wants may not be what audiences expect. In the lead up to the August 10 release of the second season of Indian Matchmaking, Shewakramani found herself blocking around 40 people per day who were slipping into her DMs and insisting that she get married this season. As she explains, that’s not how she defines success. “My view of success is that I tried, and that I tried to build a life that was beautiful for myself,” said Shewakramani, who released her memoir She’s Unlikeable earlier this year. “My ultimate love story is that I built a life that was beautiful for myself.”

We spoke with Shewakramani about her decision to return to the bingeable yet controversial reality series, her new revised dating criteria, and her advice for those working with matchmakers.