Bigg Boss OTT TRP game is going strong. And why not? Like every year, season 3 also has a love story. But this is not your same old usual trope, leading this high drama is YouTuber Armaan Malik and his two wives – Payal and Kritika. This unconventional marriage has hooked audiences who are piqued to see how the three navigate their relationship on national TV.
Bigg Boss is a den of eccentricities and this relationship has sparked a new debate on polygamy. And now, with the eviction of one of Malik’s wives, Payal, from the show four days ago, viewers are curious what the throuple’s relationship will shape to be. The makers of the reality show very well know how to captivate its audience – with a new masala every day.
My question is: Should a show promote such a relationship for mere TRP on national TV? It’s not just polygamy that Bigg Boss is trying to normalise but also the betrayal that comes with it.
On the show, Malik is often seen boasting about how both women fell in love with him in seven days and agreed to marry him. His two wives nod their heads in agreement, often blushing. Malik married his first wife, Payal, in 2011. Six years later, he married her best friend, Kritika. Payal discovered the marriage only after it had taken place, and she has often been reported saying that she had no other choice but to accept the two. But it took her a year to do so.
Why can’t women leave a man if he behaves like Malik? I know that love is like a dagger, piercing hearts with its sharpest edge – the sweetest pain that lovers talk about enduring. But your husband marrying another woman while keeping you in the dark is enough to turn the same dagger against him and an indication to leave.
Polygamy hinged on betrayal and lack of choice, as Malik’s former wife claims, is out and out cheating – morally and legally both. Such a marriage is also illegal in India under the Hindu Marriage Act of 1955.
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Sending the wrong message
Malik’s claim to fame is his unique marital status. His social media accounts are full of videos featuring him and his wives and their ‘loving’ relationship. On Bigg Boss, Malik has also said that “every man needs two wives, but they don’t say it.”
Devoleena Bhattacharjee, a former contestant on the show, took a dig at Malik and said, “Please stop this filth…I can’t say about every man but those with lewd intentions must desire to have 2,3,4…wives.”
When another Bigg Boss contestant Sana Makbul flipped the scenario and asked Malik whether he would be okay with Payal marrying someone else, he quickly said that he would not accept such a relationship.
“If Payal comes home with another man, I would ask her to stay with him,” Malik was heard saying on the show just seven days ago. Well, this man clearly has some serious double standards.
When the three Maliks were introduced on the show in the premiere episode, it was quite unpleasant to watch Bollywood star Anil Kapoor asking petty questions such as, “Which wife do you love the most?” and “Who do you want to see successful?”
I understand TRP is important, and I am not one to advocate censorship but can we, for once, reflect on what we are promoting here? What message is Bigg Boss sending to women? That it’s acceptable for your husband to marry another woman and you are expected to be okay with it? And to please him, you have to dress alike, like Kritika and Payal. Because in the end, you are a bechari aurat with no choice. But you are not. Don’t let betrayal be swept under the rug so easily that it turns into acceptance.
Views are personal.