Matchmaking on Netflix

Meet Sima Taparia, the Indian matchmaker who has married traditional sensibilities with modern-day choices.

- Benaifer J Mirza

They say marriages are made in heaven. We would say Sima Taparia makes them possible on earth. Taparia, or ‘Sima from Mumbai’, as she is more popularly known as, has become a household name today, thanks to the success of Indian Matchmaking, a docuseries that was aired on Netflix India in July 2020. In many ways, she has redefined the way arranged marriages were looked at and perceived in India.

Early years

Hailing from Gulbarga (renamed as Kalaburagi in 2014), Karnataka, Taparia has fond memories of her childhood. Her family, the Lahotis, were rich and affluent industrialists and the fourth richest family in India at the time. Her father, Shri Ramesh Chandra Lahoti, was a highly respected and well-known figure in Gulbarga and South India. Speaking about her father’s qualities that she has imbibed, Taparia says, “I have always followed in my father’s footsteps. People say that I look like him, speak like him and also have the gift of connecting with people, just the way he did.”

After she completed her HSC, her family started looking for a match for her, and that is when she met Anup Taparia, her partner for life in the truest sense of the term. Today, she owes every bit of her success and happiness to him. Her aunt, Usha Somany (of Somany Ceramics Ltd), was instrumental in this union. Sima and Anup tied the knot in May 1983 and were blessed with two beautiful daughters—Ritu in 1986 and Mridu in 1993. Ritu and her husband, Aditya Bagree, were blessed with a beautiful daughter, Anaishaa, last year.