Perhaps to keep away with the unceasing controversies surrounding the show, 'Pehredar Piya Ki' which shows the marriage of a 9-year-old boy to a girl twice his age has been taken off air.
Sony TV's show which had been at the receiving end of unforgiving opinions owing to its content has been taken off air a week after it was given an 'adult' time slot, reported the Hindustan Times.
The show was reportedly not aired yesterday as well.
The TV serial that shows a 9-year-old boy stalking, falling in love with and eventually marrying an 18-year-old woman had been in news ever since its inception, surrounded by allegations of promoting child marriage.
An episode showing a suhagrat sequence had also surfaced, causing outrage among the viewers who deemed it objectionable.
A petition was subsequently filed against its projection.
“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,” the petition stated.
Acting on the petition, Smriti Irani had intervened and expressed strong objection to the show's execution, forwarding the petition to the Broadcasting Content Complaints Council (BCCC).
Following furore, the BCCC, the self-regulatory body for TV had asked SONY to shift the time slot of the show from 8.30 pm to 10 pm. The council had also asked the channel to run it with a scroll saying it does not promote child marriage.
Perhaps to evade greater criticisms, the show was also going to witness a time leap of 12 years where it would depict the woman aged around 30 and the child as a grown-up aged around 21.
