Pehredaar Piya Ki (Lover’s Security Guard) follows the exploits of 25-year-old actress Tejaswi Prakash as she plays an 18-year-old Indian princess, Diya.
The show also stars Afaan Khan who plays Prakash's on-screen husband, Prince Ratan Singh. Oh, and small thing... he's FRIKKIN' 10 YEARS OLD.
The cringeworthy union is shown as a completely normal thing, and the age-inappropriate romance contributes to major plotlines in the show.
Well, the writers and producers decided that normalising the illegal marriage of a 10-year-old and 18-year-old isn't enough, they decided to toss in some casual stalking as well.
First, Prince Ratan hides in a chest as he "admires" Princess Diya at a time where she thinks she's alone.
In a pretty long montage in the VERY FIRST episode, he then follows her around, unbeknownst to Diya.
He uses his polaroid camera, which looks like a child's toy (AND FAIR, HE IS A CHILD) to stalk her through her day.
And it's not like the producers don't know they're promoting stalking. Every scene in which Diya almost catches Ratan, he hides, knowing he's doing something wrong.
This is what our kids are learning today: Stalk people, but don't get caught.
People have taken notice and have been calling out just how inappropriate every part of this show is.
TV actor Karan Wahi also spoke out about the show, saying, "We can be better than this".
