'Sultan of Delhi' actress takes offence over 'sex' label to scene depicting 'brutal marital rape'

Actress Mehreen Pirzada says she feels saddened that a sequence in her debut streaming series Sultan of Delhi depicting marital rape has been labelled as a sex scene in sections of the mainstream media and social media.

This kind of description "trivialises a serious issue that many women the world over are currently dealing with", Pirzada, who has worked across Hindi, Tamil, and Telugu film industries, said in a lengthy X post on Tuesday.

"There was a scene in Sultan Of Delhi that depicted a brutal marital rape. It pains me to see that a serious issue like marital rape has been described by many in the media as a 'sex scene'...," the 27-year-old actress said.

"It disturbs me that a certain section of the media and people on social media have picked upon this, these people should understand that they have sisters and daughters too and I pray to god they never have to go through such trauma in their own lives as just the thought of such brutality and violence against women is repugnant," she added.

In the series, which premiered on Disney+ Hotstar last week, Pirzada plays the role of Sanjana, the love interest of actor Tahir Raj Bhasin's Arjun Bhatia. The show is directed by Milan Luthria.

The actress said the entire team was extremely professional during the shooting of "some very difficult scenes".

"I hope as an artist to do my best in every role for my audience, be it Mahalakshmi, Sanjana or Honey," Pirzada said.

In September, the Supreme Court had said it would list pleas on the issue of marital rape for hearing in mid-October.

The pleas raise the legal question of whether a husband enjoys immunity from prosecution for the offence of rape if he forces his wife, who is not a minor, to have sex.