A Hindi TV soap has landed in the crosshairs of the internet for featuring a 16-year-old actress in an intimate scene with an adult male co-actor.
Titled Rimjhim - Choti Umar Bada Safar, the series airs on Dangal TV.
It stars Yashika Sharma, 16, and Himanshu Awasthy, 24, as the lead pair. The episode in question aired on January 28, following which the scene has gone viral.
In the sequence, Sameer (Himanshu) takes off his kurta in front of Rimjhim (Yashika), pulls her towards himself and covers her with it after noticing her blouse had loosened up. It ends with the two embracing each other.
Earlier in the show, another scene featured the two actors in bed. Both the scenes have fuelled an outrage on social media.
Clips from the series went viral, with Redditors calling out the makers for involving an underage girl in such intimate scenes.
“Don't these people get age appropriate actresses anymore? Why are they getting minor girls for these romantic lead roles?” one of them wrote on Reddit.
“Itv (Indian television) has touched its lowest low now. Literally exploiting actual minor girls and in the shows, they are also promoting child marriage. I don't understand how we are taking all this so lightly. Aise hi is country me aurato ka ye hal hai, uparse yesab. This is a nightmare,” another shared.
The television show revolves around a 16-year-old girl from Jaipur, who discovers her royal roots, leading to a conflict between duty and passion.
“Shut the show down. Jail her parents. Wtf is happening in ITV??? Why is it even happening?? Why is there no outrage over this?? That's literally a child,” came another comment.
A Reddit user said, “Boycott this show and all its discussions. Let it be taken off air.”
According to a Reddit user, the show had recently drawn outrage on X after a BTS clip from one of the episodes surfaced online. “People should start filing petitions or something to get it off-air, similar to how Pehredar Piya Ki was shut down,” they wrote.
Pehredaar Piya Ki was taken off the air on Sony Entertainment Television on August 28, 2017, after only one month due to severe backlash over its storyline, which featured an 18-year-old woman marrying a 10-year-old boy. The show was accused of glorifying child marriage and faced an online petition, forcing the channel to end it.
Neither the actors nor Dangal TV channel issued an official statement addressing the matter at the time this report was published.