Penning the series Chiraiya was no small feat for writer Divy Nidhi Sharma, who admits he went through intense emotional turmoil during the process. While the series sparks a conversation around marital rape and consent, “it touches on several other issues”. “From lack of hygienic toilets for women, the lack of vocabulary to describe female genitalia, to the lack of education. Once the ball started rolling, a lot of things kept coming up,” he shares.

What stands out, however, is the evolution of Divya Dutta’s character, Kamlesh. Though she appears courageous, the patriarchy ingrained in her drives her to make choices one would least expect from a protagonist. “While writing, I felt like slapping Kamlesh too. When she slaps Pooja [Prasanna Bisht], you see it as her conditioning and illiteracy. We are trying to have a conversation with the audience living in small towns and villages, who don’t even know that [marital rape] is wrong. We wanted our protagonist to be one of them so that people could relate to Kamlesh as she has the same questions. We also wanted to take away the saviour complex. Pooja is the victim of the crime and Kamlesh is the victim of patriarchy,” explains Sharma.