Sumeet Mittal, the writer of the controversial TV serial – Pehrdaar Piya Ki has given an interview to Desimartini.com where he has tried to explain the bizarre plot of a 10-year-old boy marrying an adult woman. The show has received a lot of criticism as apart from the age gap between the leads, it also glorifies stalking and sexualizing a child. Sumeet has tried his best to defend his writing.
Here are some excerpts from the interview –
On the reactions this show has received –
We were anticipating the reaction because people judge it very fast without understanding things. You can’t control that after a point and the best way is to tell the story and wait for reactions. Viewers should give this show a chance because it’s a different kind of a story in the same social drama space, characters are unique and their problems are distinctive. There’s a message which is going through now slowly, which was seeded in the promos that it’s about a girl’s freedom, a girl’s rights! The story is that she stands up against odd situations; she herself doesn’t know that she has got that power. She believes she is a girl next door. She also discovers herself slowly. The show tells that situations, circumstances make you strong rather than breaking you!
On why Diya HAD to marry Ratan –
It was necessary for Diya to marry Ratan because he’s staying in a joint family where there is no access for the outsiders. So after the death of his parents, marriage was the only option to protect him. Diya’s character doesn’t know her strength herself which she is discovering day by day. She never goes back; she just knows I have to move ahead in life. Slowly she will fight; she will obviously not be able to handle the situations well initially because she has not seen a matured life where you have to control people. She was also very lovingly brought up by her parents, so she will not come out and say that I’m not able to handle the situations. She will think inside and sit in the room and think but outside she’ll come strong.
And why Ratan was stalking Divya –
For a ten-year-old boy, I would say is a very common thing we’ve seen in our houses everywhere. In fact, I talk myself with my friends that we as kids at some age were fascinated by someone and looking at a person in awe. We did not have any wrong kind of an intention. You want to follow someone because it’s a dream kind of situation and the marriage aspect has come out very well in the screenplay.
To my knowledge, 10-year-old boys don’t really stalk women and sneakily click their photos. You can read the entire interview here.
I’ve written down my thoughts about the first episode and haven’t had the courage to watch more.
What are your opinions? Tell us in the comments below.