Tejaswi Prakash and Afaan Khan in Pehredaar Piya Ki. (Image courtesy: IANS)
Highlights
- Tejaswi Prakash says people are 'judgmental' and the show is 'progressive
- Many Twitter users defended the show saying it's an 'innocent story'
- A petition to ban the controversial show was addressed to Smriti Irani
The team of
Pehredaar Piya Ki is undeterred by the negative reactions and now, a
petition to ban the show, which was addressed to Smriti Irani, Minister of Information and Broadcasting. The show's lead actress Tejaswi Prakash told news agency IANS that people believe in 'judging a book by its cover.' The 25-year-old actress plays the role of Diya, who is 18 years of age and is married to Ratan (played by Afaan Khan), who is all of 10. Tejaswi had defended the show since its promos fetched negative reaction. Her logic - Diya and Ratan's story is not about romance but about friendship. The initial few episodes, in which Ratan stalks Diya and claims he fell in love with her, proved Tejaswi wrong. The relationship between the two protagonists was just one reason why the show received hatred. Viewers were also upset that the show propagated child marriage.
Recently, a petition started on
change.org calling for a ban on the controversial show and now, Tejaswi told IANS: "I think it's really progressive. But again, a lot of people believe in judging a book by its cover. They love being judgmental and people have nothing better to do than judging somebody else's work. Then okay, what can I do?"
"I feel it's just a story and fiction. It's just a story that we are telling people. So how can you judge any story? You like it okay, you don't like it, so, you don't like it. We are not professors, we are not trying to teach you anything," she added.
Actor Suyyash Rai, who appeared on the show as Abhay, Diya's fiance-to-be for a couple of episodes, came to the show's defense only after Karan Wahi's comment on it went viral. Karan Wahi said it is a TRP hungry show with "stupid content." Many people agreed with Karan Wahi, stars of shows like
Dill Mill Gayye, but Suyyash was not one of them. He said: "Whatever Karan Wahi said it's his point of view and no one can question him neither me nor you guys. But this doesn't change the fact that we, the whole team of Pehredaar Piya Ki love this show and we all have worked really hard for it."
You'd expect Twitter to be a logical place but going by the way celebrities are trolled for their choice of clothes, religious beliefs and sometimes even of their choice of food, it's a little too much to expect.
Pehdaar Piya Ki got some
pehredaars on Twitter:
There were some who disagreed:
Pehredaar Piya Ki premiered on July 17 and has been a topic of discussion over the show's relevance and theme.
(With IANS inputs)