Pehredaar Piya Ki goes off air after criticism

Amid the negative publicity on social media, the Broadcast Content Complaint Council’s (BCCC) intervention and an online petition to shut the show, Sony Entertainment television has pulled the curtains down on its new show Pehredaar Piya Ki down. The last episode, no. 30, was aired on August 25 and the following episode supposed to air on August 28 was abruptly stalled.

After that, the channel issued an official statement, saying, “Effective August 28, 2017, we are pulling off our programme, Pehredaar Piye 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, new shows. We are grateful to all the artists, producers and fans of our shows and request you to graciously support the viewership of our newer ventures.”

While the channel’s spokesperson was not available for comments, officials from the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting had a closed-door meeting with higher officials in the broadcast network, suggesting drawing curtains on the show.

The show was launched on July 17 at 8.30 pm. The BCCC has intervened last week and told the channel to push the fiction drama out of the prime time slot. The show was shifted to 10.30pm on August 22.

The show depicts the story of an 18-year-old girl, who gets married to a nine-year-old boy under unavoidable circumstances to protect the boy and his family and wealth. The show attracted a lot of wrath from the social media users for its child marriage concept.

While there are multiple online petitions to ban the show, one of them has been signed by over 1.38 lakh people till now. The producer of the show, Sumeet Mittal, one of the co-founders of Shashi-Sumeet Productions, has been saying that the show is not regressive and that there is more to it than what meets the eye. Mittal has been quoted in multiple media reports, mentioning that 10.30pm slot is not what the storyline was written for.

If reports and rumours are to be believed, the show will be brought back with a 12-year leap when Ratan Singh, the protagonist, will return from abroad, graduating as a 21-year-old while the female lead will be 30.

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