The comedy powerhouse The Great Indian Kapil Show is back in production for its fourth Netflix season. But what should be a huge wave of excitement is instead marred by a collective sigh of frustration. Having transitioned from a weekend television staple to a premium global streaming property, TGIKS, across its first three seasons on the platform, emerged as nothing but an expensive and highly lavish rerun of its old self.
For Season 4 to truly succeed and justify its place on a platform known for innovation, the makers must finally heed the growing criticism and adhere to a clear mandate: evolve or stagnate.
One of the biggest issues haunting the comedy show across all three of its seasons is format fatigue.
Every episode follows the same rigid, decade-old template that dates back to Kapil’s early golden days on Colors TV. For years, viewers have watched the host open with a monologue, followed by celebrity interviews, and then character skits (usually revolving around a giant set). This time, there’s an airport set for Netflix.
It’s not as though Netflix restricts flexible formats. TGIKS needs segments beyond celebrity promotion. New and innovative formats for interviews and character skits should be introduced to break the decade-old structure and bring something fresh and exciting to the table.
The celebrity interactions often remain surface-level, focused on promotional soundbites that are repeated across multiple shows. Season 4 needs to ditch the ‘masala’ for more insightful, personality-driven conversations, mirroring the depth found in successful global talk shows.
The Indian streaming audience is more diverse than ever, and increasingly intolerant of outdated comic tropes. This is why the show’s reliance on easy, predictable jokes is its greatest liability.
Recurring jokes targeting the weight of cast members (such as Kiku Sharda) or the personality of Archana Puran Singh are consistently flagged as cheap and cringeworthy.
While characters like Sunil Grover’s Chumbbak Mittal and Karan (his impersonation of Salman Khan from Karan Arjun) showed great promise, the sheer volume of gags relying solely on male comedians in exaggerated, caricatured female roles feels outdated in 2025. It is time to introduce fresh characters that don’t depend on this single, exhausted comic device.
The reunion of Kapil Sharma and Sunil Grover was Netflix’s biggest coup. Yet the show has often over-relied on Grover’s presence to inject energy, without giving his brilliant talent truly new material. While Grover’s mimicry is phenomenal, Season 4 must create new, long-running and well-written characters that exist outside the current repetitive skit structure.
The show must empower the entire cast, including Krushna Abhishek, Kiku Sharda and others, with sharper, non-redundant writing so that the show’s success isn’t solely dependent on Grover’s already burdened shoulders.
Season 4 cannot afford to be another TV repeat on Netflix. The shooting has begun. Now is the time for The Great Indian Kapil Show to drop the old script and embrace the creative freedom of streaming to become the globally relevant, innovative comedy giant it was meant to be. Stay tuned for more updates.