Pehredaar Piya Ki: Smriti Irani forwards petition calling for ban on show after 1.25 lakh signatures?

Pehredaar Piya Ki is in the news, and once again it’s for all the wrong reasons. [caption id=“attachment_3928495” align=“alignleft” width=“380”]  A still from Pehredaar Piya Ki. Image from Twitter.[/caption] After the show elicited various responses from the audience, one of them being the start of an online petition by a girl named  Mansi Jain calling for a ban on Sony Entertainment Television’s primetime television show and asking the Information and Broadcasting Minister of India — Smriti Irani — to step in and take the necessary action, the latest update on Jain’s endeavour is that Irani has indeed stepped in and forwarded the petition to the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) after the petition garnered over 1.25 lakh signatures, according to a DNA report. The BCCC is reportedly still to receive an official complaint from the I&B minister’s office, however objections over the show’s content have allegedly been pouring into the BCCC office from all parts of India, and the matter is being said to be officially taken up on 16 August. “A 10-year-old impressionable little kid (‘piyaa’) caressing and stalking a lady who’s more than double his age and filling ‘sindoor’ in her ‘maang’ is being telecasted at prime time, family time. Imagine the kind of influence it will steadily and perpetually infuse in the viewers’ mindset. We want a ban on the serial. We do not want our kids to be influenced by such TV serials,” read the petition according to a News 18 report. Smriti Irani took up the role as India’s Union Minister of Information and Broadcasting last month, and it seems like her hands are already full. The BCCC serves as a self-regulatory body that was set up to monitor the content of non-news channels, through the registering of complaints of suo moto. Pehredaar Piya Ki is a show that follows the story of a 10-year-old prince, Ratan, and an 18-year-old girl Diya and the sham marriage that takes place between the two of them in order for Diya to be Ratan’s protector — pehredaar — against an evil family. She takes on this role (sacrificing her own engagement to a guy who she loves and is actually her age) after Ratan’s father (Diya’s dad’s BFF) asks his friend for a favour and Diya’s sweet little heart melts. The ‘objectionable’ content that has everyone outraged are in these few scenes: Ratan filling Diya’s maang with sindoor, gently caressing her leg (?) and stalking her while he clicks pictures. There is also an awkward (bordering on the edge of pedophilia and almost evil) joke that is played by Diya’s in-laws after they set up her bedroom at the palace like a honeymoon suite in order for the newly married couple to celebrate their suhaag raat. Pehredaar Piya Ki stars Tejaswi Prakash, Afaan Khan, Suyyash Rai,  Parmeet Sethi and Kishori Shahane. _(Also Read: Pehredaar Piya Ki: A TV show that will make you wonder what the hell you just watched.)_