Kya Shaadi ek license hai? JioHotstar unveils Chiraiya, a powerful new original series that dares to question one of the most deeply normalised injustices within Indian households: the dangerous assumption that marriage equals lifelong consent. Directed by Shashant Shah, the series features a stellar ensemble cast led by Divya Dutta, alongside Sanjay Mishra, Siddharth Shaw, Prasanna Bisht, Faisal Rashid, Tinnu Anand, Sarita Joshi, and others.
The teaser of Chiraiya opens with the sound of celebration: a wedding, a promise, a new beginning. Pooja, the young bride, steps into her new home with hope in her eyes as the “perfect” daughter-in-law everyone expects her to be. But in a sharp and haunting cut, we see her alone on the terrace, tears silently rolling down her face. The contrast is unsettling. Behind all this celebration lies a truth no one wants to name. Chiraiya raises a difficult but necessary question to society: If a husband forces himself on a woman after marriage, does it stop being a crime just because they are married? Yeh sawaal hai samaaj se. Because marriage is not a license, and silence is not consent.
Divya Dutta added, “While living with this character in Chiraiya, I found myself constantly confronting an uncomfortable truth: how often we silence ourselves in the name of preserving relationships, in the name of keeping the peace. This story forced me to reflect on how easily marriage is assumed to be a space of unquestioned consent, and how sacrifice is romanticised to the point where pain becomes invisible. When you witness someone you love being diminished or wronged, do you stay quiet to protect what exists, or do you risk everything to protect what is right? There is no easy answer, and perhaps that is what makes it so deeply unsettling. I hope when people experience this story, they don’t just watch it, they feel it and perhaps, in some quiet way, recognise truths we often hesitate to name.”
Chiraiya coming soon, exclusively on JioHotstar.