Four Years Later


Four Years Later, originally titled Four Years is an eight-part Australian-Indian romance drama, premiering on SBS and SBS on Demand on 2 October 2024. It is created, co-written, and executive produced by Mithila Gupta, and stars Shahana Goswami, Akshay Ajit Singh, Kate Box, and Luke Arnold.

Synopsis

The series follows the love story of two medical residents from Jaipur, India, whose families plan an arranged marriage for them. The man, a doctor working towards a specialist training, is almost immediately offered an anaesthesiology traineeship in Australia, while the woman stays in India, resulting in the couple being separated for four years.

Production

The series is created, co-written, and executive produced by Mithila Gupta, who has also written on The Heights, Bump, Doctor Doctor, Neighbours, and many other successful TV series. She moved with her family from Jaipur to Australia when she was four, so understands much about the migrant experience.
Writing consultants included Nicole Reddy, of Fijian heritage, and Tamil Sri Lankan writer S. Shakthidharan, creator of the hit stage show Counting and Cracking. Ian Collie, Stephen Corvini, and Rob Gibson are the producers of the series, while Fadia Abboud and Mohini Herse direct the series.
Filming of the eight-part romance drama series from Easy Tiger Productions began in the Indian cities of Mumbai and Jaipur in January 2024, before moving to Sydney in February. It was originally titled Four Years.
The series uses both Hindi and English.

Cast

The cast was announced on 4 September 2024:
  • Shahana Goswami as Sridevi
  • Akshay Ajit Singh as Yash
  • Kate Box as Gabs
  • Taj Aldeeb as Jamal
  • Roy Joseph as Arun
  • Luke Arnold as Matt
  • Yohan Philip as Rohit
  • Philip Quast as Dr Sandy Green

    Broadcast

The series premiered with double episodes on SBS on 2 October 2024, with all episodes streaming on SBS on Demand from that date and screening double episodes each Wednesday for four weeks. The series has been subtitled in seven languages: Arabic, Simplified Chinese, Traditional Chinese, Korean, Vietnamese, Hindi, and Punjabi, and all episodes are also available with audio description.

Reception

The first two episodes of the show garnered 115,000 viewers.
The Sunday Age stated: "The relatively soft launch of this debut by Five Bedrooms screenwriter Mithila Gupta in this timeslot makes little sense".
Sukhmani Khorana, a scholar of migrants' screen media and associate professor at UNSW Sydney, called it "not just an Indian-Australian love story... a closeted feminist coming-of-age tale", that would appeal to a diverse TV audience.
The Nightly called it "a great series that tells a specific but universal Australian story".
ScreenHub Australia gave it 4 out of 5 stars, calling it "compulsive viewing", "sharply observed and full of telling details when it comes to love", and "a well-written and eminently watchable modern love story".

Episodes

Accolades