Seeing Bridgerton's South Asian Event All The Way From Australia Meant So Much

Netflix and Product of Culture with Simone Ashley celebrated Bridgerton Season 2 with a South Asian event hosted by Teen Vogue's Editor-In-Chief Versha Sharma.

Earlier this week, Netflix, Product of Culture and Simone Ashley celebrated the release of Bridgerton's second season with a special event in LA. While we've seen a series of snaps in recent weeks of promotional events, junket interviews and magazine spreads, the photos from this event particularly captured my attention.

Hosted by Teen Vogue Editor-in-Chief Versha Sharma, the event featured an almost all-South Asian guest list including the likes of Never Have I Ever's Maitreyi Ramakrishnan, Richa Moorjani and Poorna Jagannathan, comedian Lilly Singh, actor Kal Penn, artist Alok Vaid-Menon and YouTuber Liza Koshy.

When images began to pop up on my Instagram feed, I was overcome with excitement. How often do we see an entertainment industry gathering dedicated to celebrating South Asian culture? And as an Indian journalist in Australia, seeing a female South Asian editor like Versha Sharma hosting it was incredibly inspiring and heartwarming. We all know know how far we've still got to go as a country to get even close to the representation we see in the US, UK and Canada. So, to see this diversity flourishing abroad reminds us we're still being seen and heard — even if it's seas away — and hopefully our industry on Aussie shores evolves and becomes more inclusive as time goes by.

Check out some of the fun social media posts from the event that took place at Arth Bar & Kitchen, complete with a Tamil Nadu and Bridgerton-inspired menu of course.

Plus, if you're after more Sharma sisters content, check out my interview with Simone Ashley and Charithra Chandran for Refinery29 Australia here. I also chatted to the extremely handsome Jonathan Bailey and you can read what he said here.