Director: Lyttanya Shannon
For years, Kirat Assi believed she was in a real, evolving relationship with a man she had never once met in person — and Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare rebuilds exactly how that belief was constructed and sustained.
What is Sweet Bobby My Catfish Nightmare about?
Directed by Lyttanya Shannon, this 82-minute documentary reconstructs an online deception that stretched across years rather than weeks, using interviews, messages, and voice recordings to show how an elaborate false identity was maintained convincingly enough to reshape someone's whole social world. Kirat Assi recounts the relationship in her own words, walking through how trust was built gradually and how doubts were explained away as they arose. Family members and people close to the events, including Hemma Gulhane, Anurag Mehra, and Ariya Larker, add outside perspective on how the situation looked to those watching from the edges, and how long it took for the full picture to surface.
Cast & crew
Kirat Assi is the documentary's central voice, telling her own story directly to camera rather than through a narrator or dramatization. Hemma Gulhane, Anurag Mehra, and Ariya Larker appear as people connected to the events, offering context and corroboration rather than performances — everyone in the film is a real participant, not an actor.
Context & significance
Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare arrived in 2024 as part of a broader run of documentaries examining online catfishing and identity fraud, distinguishing itself by focusing less on shock value and more on the mechanics of long-term manipulation. Director Lyttanya Shannon structures the film around firsthand testimony rather than reenactment, which keeps the emphasis on how the deception actually worked over such a long stretch of time rather than on any single dramatic reveal. The film holds a rating around 6.2 out of 10 among general audiences.
Where & how to watch
Sweet Bobby: My Catfish Nightmare is available on K-Time with Farsi dubbing and Farsi subtitles, and this page can be read in full without an account. Watching the documentary itself requires signing in, and the K-Time interface is built in Persian to serve Iranian and diaspora viewers directly.