Everyone's talking about ‘Lust Stories 3,’ but is the hype deserved?
‘Lust Stories 3’, Netflix's anthology on love, desire and the messiness of modern relationships drops on September 18, and the platform confirmed it with an Instagram post promising ‘desire, drama and dilemmas.’
This edition brings together four heavyweight directors, Vikramaditya Motwane, Kiran Rao, Shakun Batra and Vishal Bhardwaj each helming one of four stories. The writers' room is stacked too with Kiran Rao, Tanaji Dasgupta, Avinash Sampath, Sumukhi Suresh, Shakun Batra, Sameeha Sabnis, Ashwathi Namboodiri, Nitesh Bhatia, Utkarshini Vashishtha and Vishal Bhardwaj all have a hand in the writing.
Ronnie Screwvala and Ashi Dua produce, with RSVP and Flying Unicorn Entertainment backing the project.
The cast is easily one of the anthology's biggest draws, Radhika Apte, Konkona Sen Sharma, Aditi Rao Hydari, Radhika Madan, Sana Thampi, Vijay Varma, Abhishek Banerjee, Siddharth, Ali Fazal and Gurfateh Pirzada.
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True to franchise form, expect four distinct lenses on intimacy, love and the choices that come with modern relationships, each filmmaker bringing their own tone to the table.
The announcement has already brought a lively discussion online, and reactions are a real mixed bag.
The nostalgia crowd is thrilled to see Radhika Apte back, with several crediting her for putting the franchise on the map in the first place, some even joking that other actresses should follow her lead into bolder roles.
The skeptics are managing expectations early. A common refrain, out of every anthology, roughly one story lands, a couple are forgettable, and one flops and this time, with only three stories instead of four, the math feels even less forgiving to some fans.
The franchise veterans are debating the pecking order, several insist Part 1 remains the strongest, with Part 2 dismissed as style over substance, though a few defenders pushed back saying Part 2 had genuinely memorable moments.
The casting critics aren't fully sold either. There's some grumbling that Konkona Sen Sharma's roles across projects like ‘Dolly Kitty Aur Woh Chamakte Sitare’ and ‘Lust Stories 2’ feel repetitive, and a few commenters wondered why familiar franchise faces weren't brought back this round.
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The cheeky ones had the most fun with it, pointing out that people complaining about the show's steamier content seem to be missing that it's literally called ‘Lust Stories’, while others jokingly speculated about what the new stories might contain.
Overall, the comment section shows the franchise's usual push-pull, equal parts anticipation and ‘let's see if it lives up to the hype’ scepticism, which, if anything, only proves ‘Lust Stories’ still knows how to get people talking before a single frame has aired.