Our TV serials are not known for their stellar content or progressive themes. But one TV series in particular seems to have attracted everyone's attention and for all the wrong reasons. In a sea of mediocre, regressive often frankly awful content on Indian TV, this one plumbs hitherto unplumbed depths. Pehredaar Piya Ki is one show that has been mired in controversy since it first started; now an online petition is seeking to ban it. So what is the fuss all about?
The story pivots on the bizarre theme of a 9 (some say 10) year old boy’s crush on his 18 year old caretaker; a young woman whom he then proceeds to stalk and photograph furtively. Tejaswi Prakash and Afaan Khan play the lead roles of Diya Ratan Singh and Prince Ratan Singh.
The child then proposes to the older child (18 year olds are kids too). Apparently there is some inheritance issue or simething similar and the girl decides to marry the 9 year old kid; apparently in order to ‘protect’ him.
The utter creepiness of the stalking by a child, the child marriage and the ‘wife’ coyly calling the little boy ‘Ratan Sa’ (presumably because the male spouse must always, always be respected) did not go down well with viewers.
The creepiness was upped several notches when the serial makers decided to insert mentions of ‘suhaagraat’ and ‘honeymoon’ and then proceeded to show the two sharing a bed; you know, cozily discussing sleeplessness and suchlike matters. Then the boy tells her not to drink tea because it will turn her dark. He also picks out her clothes for her. Ready to gag now?
Lead Tejaswi Prakash seems to labor under some peculiar notion that this is a story about women’s empowerment – Huh? A source from the show said that the serial doesn’t promote child marriage but that the marriage is for a ‘cause’. Apparently this marriage is not for the purposes of “enjoying marital pleasures”.
One of the actors of the show was quoted as having said, “Tell me did we show them having sex that there’s such a hullabaloo over the suhaagraat sequence. And there is no honeymoon sequence.” Apparently this is just a “fictitious entertaining story”. Weirdly, the serial makers appear to think that all this is somehow ‘cute’; they don’t appear to get how exceedingly cringe-worthy it is!
There is an online petition started by a viewer who was horrified at the content and the fact that it is aired at prime time when kids could view it. The petition has garnered over 1,20,000 signatures so far.
Responding to the online petition, Irani has addressed a communication to the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) and asked them to take immediate action on a ‘priority’ basis. So perhaps the show will be taken off air sometime soon. But how does this solve the issue of regressive mindsets and the fact that there are those who defend the show and the fact that the show actually has a pretty good viewership? To me the existence of a terrible show that I can choose not to watch, is far less troubling than the fact that so many out there want to watch this drivel.
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