"I massage his feet every morning."
A clip from Netflix’s new reality series Desi Bling has ignited a fierce and widespread debate about gender roles online.
The moment in question features Dubai-based billionaire couple Tabinda Sanpal and Satish Sanpal discussing their daily morning ritual together.
Tabinda, also known as Binda, revealed that she wakes her husband up every single morning with a 15-minute foot massage.
The couple explained that this practice is rooted in the Hindu belief that a wife touching her husband’s feet invites prosperity.
“Since I am with Satish, I massage his feet every morning. He wakes up like a prince.
“As a Hindu, he believes that if a wife touches her husband’s feet every morning, toh bahaut Lakshmi aati hai.”
The moment has now become one of the most talked-about moments on Indian Netflix this week.
Actors Tejasswi Prakash and Karan Kundrra were present during this conversation, and their reactions added another layer to the already charged moment.
Tejasswi’s visible shock at hearing the explanation quickly became a focal point of the widespread online discussion that followed.
She made her own position abundantly clear with a short but definitive response to what she had just witnessed and heard.
Tejasswi plainly stated: “I am not doing that.”
Her reaction drew immediate appreciation from a large section of viewers watching the episode.
A second clip from the same series added further fuel to the debate that was already rapidly spreading across social media platforms.
In this clip, Tabinda is seen carefully cutting Satish’s nails and describing the act as a deeply personal gesture of love and devotion.
“I have been cutting Satish’s nails for nine years. This is a sign of love, respect, and care for me.”
While Tabinda framed both practices as expressions of love and religious belief, many viewers online interpreted them very differently.
The clips were quickly linked to the concept of “pati seva,” a term used to describe the tradition of wives serving their husbands devotedly.
Many social media users criticised what they saw as the normalisation and even glamorisation of deeply unequal relationship dynamics on a major streaming platform.
A user remarked: “‘Pati seva’ in 2026? No matter how rich you are, money can’t buy class.”
Another user referenced widely circulated rumours about the couple’s relationship while questioning the logic of such devoted rituals altogether, saying:
“What’s the use? He is still going to cheat. She said it herself that she doesn’t care about it.”
Others focused on the broader message being sent by showcasing such rituals on a globally visible and highly subscribed streaming platform.
One comment read: “This is not love, this is domination.”
Another said: “If ‘Money can’t buy wisdom’ had a face.”
Desi Bling focuses on the extravagant lifestyles of Indian couples based in Dubai, exploring their businesses, relationships and unique worldviews.
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