Tanvi Trivedi (BOMBAY TIMES; August 30, 2017)

Despite being re-designated to a late night time slot of 10.30 pm following the furore that raged around its plot of a 10-year-old boy marrying an 18-year old girl, Pehredaar Piya Ki (PPK) is in the news again - but this time for being yanked off air abruptly! The television industry was abuzz, when the show did not air in the new time slot on August 28. The channel, on which it aired, released a statement, confirming the new development, “Effective from August 28, 2017, we are pulling off our programme, Pehredaar Piya Ki, from television. While we understand that the decision to end this serial will be disappointing to those whose creative energies are vested in it, namely, its crew and cast, we (as a channel) are convinced that we will be better served by focusing instead on developing viewer interest in our upcoming shows. We are grateful to all the artistes, producers and fans of our shows and request you to graciously support the viewership of our new ventures.“

It was learnt that the makers, Shashi and Sumeet Mittal, had stopped shooting the show since August 28. The decision to end the show was taken by the producers after the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) asked the channel to move the show from its 8.30 pm slot to the 10.30 pm slot. The timings were changed when an online petition demanding a ban on the show was forwarded to Information and Broadcasting Minister Smriti Irani, which she forwarded to the BCCC on August 16.

What was found objectionable about PPK's story is that it showed a marriage between a 10-year-old boy and an 18-yearold girl. According to reports, the petition had also listed out certain scenes as objectionable: A 10-year-old impressionable boy ('piyaa') was shown caressing and stalking a lady who's almost twice his age, and filling 'sindoor' in her 'maang'. It was telecast at prime time. Imagine the kind of influence it can have on the viewers' mindset. We want a ban on the serial. We do not want our kids to be influenced by such shows.“

However, Sumeet Mittal has always maintained that his show did not have any objectionable content. In an interview, before the show went off air, he said, “The show is about the hardships faced by a little boy. While we respect the decision taken by the BCCC, pushing the show to the 10.30 pm slot has forced us to discontinue. It defeats our purpose of airing the show for family audience at 8.30 pm. The audiences in smaller towns won't be up till 10.30 pm to watch our show.“

He had also dismissed reports of the show planning a time leap. “Without establishing the young boy's story, we did not want to take a time leap just to hold on to our viewers. We would rather return with a new concept and a brand new show and work with the same actors all over again,“ Sumeet added.

Despite the odds, the producers are not bitter about the show ending prematurely. However, they are saddened by how people termed it regressive without even watching it. Sumeet continues, “Our show was not really high on the rating ladder for it to become a topic of discussion for the entire nation. A section of internet users, who had not watched the show, started this massive debate and decided to write a petition asking for a ban. These people were not even our real viewers.“

In its one-month-10-day-run, PPK has only been in the centre of controversies. While social media was raging against it, there were criticisms within the television industry , too. One of the first to voice his displeasure was actor Karan Wahi.
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Natasha Coutinho (MUMBAI MIRROR; August 30, 2017)

Alittle over a month after its July 17 launch on Sony, TV drama Pehredaar Piya Ki has been pulled off air in light of online backlash surrounding its theme. The show revolved around an 18-year-old girl Diya (Tejaswi Prakash Wayangankar) who, compelled by circumstances, marries nine-year-old Ratan Singh (played by Affan Khan), a hotel heir. On his deathbed, Ratan’s father Maan Singh tells Divya’s family that the couple should remarry to make the alliance legal when his son turns 21.

However, viewers found the concept unpalatable and voiced their disapproval online, followed by a petition addressed to Union Cabinet Minister of Textiles and Information and Broadcasting (Additional Charge), Smriti Irani, demanding a ban on the show. The petition got more than a lakh signatures, forcing the channel to hold a press conference at which the show’s producers, Shashi and Sumeet Mittal, clarified their stand.

While they were reportedly in discussion for the late night slot of 10 pm for the show, the channel, over the weekend, decided to pull it off air to avoid further controversies. The channel confirmed the news in a statement, saying, “Effective August 28, we are pulling our programme, Pehredaar Piya Ki, off TV. While we understand that the decision to end this serial will be disappointing to those whose creative energies are vested in it, namely, its crew and cast, we (as a channel) are convinced that we will be better served by focusing instead on developing viewer interest in our upcoming, new shows.”

Meanwhile, Sumeet Mittal told Mirror that he has already moved on to a new show. “The idea now is to create a story that is pure entertainment and doesn’t touch on controversies. We’d rather focus on entertaining the audience rather than handle internet-based issues,” he said, adding that people only watched the promos and misunderstood the concept. “I would have loved it if the social media audience had watched the show before reacting to it because that would’ve been a fair opinion. It is okay to judge if the content is good or bad.

The base of this controversy was rumours and that’s not a healthy sign.” What happened to the interim plan to shift the show from primetime to a late-night slot? “The online petition had gone to Broadcasting Content Complaints Council, the body that looks after content-related complaints. The jury decided that even though the show is not promoting anything wrong, it would be prudent to shift it to a 10 pm slot in light of the petition and also since the show involves a child actor. However, we knew that the slot wouldn’t do justice to the show’s plot so we decided to end it and work on a new one,” Mittal explains. Incidentally, the channel had received flak two weeks ago for pulling the daily soap Kuch Rang Pyar Ke Aise Bhi off air with just a fourday notice to the team.

Producer Siddharth P Malhotra
I’m not in favour of abrupt endings. A producer’s contract mentions a notice period to facilitate the story’s smooth end. Any show with a good story should be aired but only till you’re honest to it. Pehredaar is not my kind of a show but the fact that it ran for a while means there was an audience for it.

TV producer Ravindra Gautam
It is unfortunate that the show was shut without notice to its team. But I don’t think the broadcaster or the producer needs to be blamed in this case. It is unfair on the part of the viewers to criticise a show so much as to file a petition against it. This is lynching of freedom of expression.

Badho Bahu producer Dipti Kalwani
I don’t think most of the people who objected to the show even bothered to watch it. They thought they were being righteous. If the show had a 10-year-old girl falling in love with an older man, no one would have objected. People think they are being fair but I think they are being sexist.

Pehredaar... actor Suyyash Rai
I was about to return in the story so it’s a shocker to me. It’s sad but I’m sure that it was a well thought out decision. I remember something similar happening a few years ago, when a channel was shut overnight. More than us, it is sad for the spot dada, light men. Their homes run because of daily soaps.
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Sonil Dedhia (MID-DAY; August 30, 2017)

It was announced yesterday that Pehredaar Piya Ki, one of the most controversial shows on Indian television in recent times, will go off air. This decision comes days after Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC) decided to change the show’s slot from prime time to late night. The drama that revolved around an 18-year-old woman getting married to a nine- year- old boy received flak for its objectionable content.

Speaking to mid-day, producer Shashi Sumeet Mittal said that the decision to pull the plug on the show wasn’t taken abruptly. “It was a mutual decision between the channel and us,” she said.

Earlier this month, I&B Minister Smriti Irani had written to the BCCC, asking them to review the content of the show. Mittal, however, denies that the I&B Ministry had any role to play in the show being taken off air. “We didn’t have any pressure from anyone. In fact, after watching the show, the Ministry had allowed us to continue with it as they didn’t find anything objectionable.” She added, “We had written the show keeping the prime time audience in mind. After the show was pushed to the 10.30 pm slot, we realised it wasn’t garnering the response we wanted. So we decided to pull it off air.”

Mittal said that they will return with a new show. “We are in the process of writing the show. We want a prime time slot and don’t want to get into another controversy this time.”