A May-December love story that has drawn serious flak
‘Pehredaar Piya Ki’ (yes, we are talking about the much debated new show on Sony Entertainment Television) has quickly slipped from the incredulous to the downright uncomfortable category. Just a week old, the serial that depicts budding romance between a nine-year old boy and an 18-19 year old girl, has received some serious flak from all quarters.
Well, there was no such revulsion when ‘Game of Thrones’ a few seasons ago showed the marriage and physical intimacy between a young Tommen and much older Margery. And the world went ‘ooh’ and ‘awww’ over the 39-year old French President Emmanuel Macron and his 63-year old wife Brigitte Trogneux. Macron was an impressionable 15-year old schoolboy when he met Brigitte, who was his drama teacher.
When it comes to the bizarre on Hindi GEC shows, take your pick amongst the not so recent shows – Simar turning into a makkhi (fly), an Icchadhaari Naagin, Karan Kundra turning into a werewolf, or ‘Thapki Pyaar Ki’, where a gorilla falls in love with a human!
The entire cast of ‘Pehredaar Piya Ki’ are defending the show and are asking viewers to wait and watch for the plot to further unfold so that the events don’t really turn out to be all that bizarre.
But among the many voices raised are those of the television fraternity itself – both actors and producers.
Television actor Karan Wahi expressed his disappointment in his Facebook post, where he wrote: “Dear producer and channel, I understand we can’t make shows like ‘How I Met Your Mother’ and ‘Friends’, and honestly I don’t expect us to also, but for the love of God and for the reason we all got in this industry, please don’t sell me stupidity in the name of content which gives TRP, because honestly no one is watching this. Leave aside other people, I think the fraternity only doesn’t (watch the show). I wish and pray well for everyone who is a part of this show also, but it would be great if we started enjoying our work and not just working because we don’t have an option. Not to sound arrogant, but we can be better than this.”
Agreeing with Karan Wahi, actor Shardul Pandit said, “What Karan has said is a brave opinion. Of course, the content on television is regressive. I have grown up on ‘Byomkesh Bakshi’, ‘Hum Paanch’ and ‘Malgudi Days’. But why blame only the makers? Are audiences ready to watch good shows? I want to say to the viewers who are writing on tweets and on Facebook – we want good shows, but you guys are the ones that make the most regressive shows a hit and give good shows a miss. The makers and channels will make what the audiences want to watch.”
Actor Shakti Arora remarked of late, television had been showcasing regressive and done-to-death content as he felt that there was lack of good stories. “English television shows are rich in content and their stories and concepts are at least 20 years ahead of us. We are letting down our television industry with the kind of content that we are selling. I understand the TRPs are high for these kinds of shows, but we need to keep going with good content so that we can change the viewpoint and mentality of our audience. There is so much good content in the industry, but we are not showing them enough. Instead of letting our industry down, we should make good shows with good content, even if that means the show would have low TRPs for a while,” he suggested.
TV actress Adaa Khan, too, believes that some shows on television are definitely regressive and bizarre, and added that there is a certain set of audiences who are watching such shows. But at the same time, a majority of the audience has stopped watching television and switched to alternate online and other entertainment options. She affirmed, “Content needs to appeal to audiences’ sensibilities. The audience is far more intelligent as they are exposed to a wide variety of content. The makers should make more progressive shows as the audiences do imitate what is shown on television.”
While admitting that makers are creating regressive and bizarre shows, actor Arjun Bijlani pointed out that this has been going on for a very long time now and added that the maximum TRPs for shows come from such content. “Even if the makers want to experiment and make shows that run long and are commercially viable, they are unable to do so. People love watching such bizarre and regressive content in small towns, but this should change over a period of time. A lot of producers are trying to make different and intelligent content-based shows, but people exercise their choice with their remote controls at home as they can choose to watch what they want.”
Actor Ssharad Malhotraa added here, “When we make a show, we need to see what kind of people we are targeting. Making such regressive content will not serve anyone’s needs. Television is a great tool for motivation as well. Women fighting with other women, children falling in love with adults – these are the kind of themes we have for our shows today. And then when we look at the West, we have ‘Game of Thrones’ and ‘Suits’, shows which people love to watch and eagerly wait for the next episode. It’s time that we started working on our content. What are we trying to sell to the younger generation? Content has to make sense. A child falling in love with an adult is not acceptable to the Indian audience. Certain random shows are bizarre and regressive, but there is a lot of experimentation happening as well.”
On the other hand, TV producer Siddharth P Malhotra felt that regressive and progressive are subjective, what’s important is to be honest in one’s storytelling and product. He said, “Each story has a world created within its DNA, when you mess around with the world or intent, that’s when the idea you set out to do seems flawed and is given terms as the content itself is not appealing to the audience. So, in my opinion, you should be honest to what you set out to do. The content may or may not be accepted, but no one will tell you it’s bad.”
While admitting that he has not seen any episode of ‘Pehredaar Piya Ki’, TV show producer Sushant Kumar strongly agreed that the concept did sound creepy – that a 9-year-old boy is getting married to an 18-year-old girl. But he preferred to give the show a benefit of doubt, saying, “I guess it’s too early to judge a show, we cannot judge a book by its cover. Let’s watch some more episodes and then decide. I am sure both Shashi Sumeet Productions and Sony channel are sensible enough to approve a concept that won’t hurt public sentiments.”
Agreeing with Sushant Kumar, TV actress Rashami Desai felt that the content and show needed to be given some time before jumping into conclusions. She added, “Entertainment is not here to preach any morality. Be it television or films, there is always new concepts and content coming in and we can’t be opposing them. The show has just started and it is the full right of the producer to experiment and make different content. There was a film called ‘Mera Naam Joker’, in which Simi Garewal did a bold scene. Initially that film was not accepted, but later the film went on to become a part of cult cinema.”
On a different note, Ramman Handa believes that it might be a gimmick to create hype for the show. “Criticism is the best way to raise TRPs, and if somebody doesn’t like the particular content, then they have thousands of options to change it. So why this criticism? Be it a TV serial or a film, it’s just the storytelling and what’s wrong with experimental stories. Every individual has a choice to pick up whatever they want to, and if you are capable of criticizing, then why don’t you show what you have? It’s easy to criticise, but tough to bring anything on the screen,” he added.
Given such strong comments surrounding ‘Pehredaar Piya Ki’, it will be interesting to see how the show has performed as per BARC ratings for Week 29. Viewers might just tune in for the curiosity factor…
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