How should Raghav and Pallavi have romanced/married?

Let's pretend that the first part of the story is the same: Raghav Rao, driving drunk, rear-ends Pallavi Deshmukh and sets her textiles on fire; she slaps him in public for beating a child and an old man; he ambushes her at night and threatens to crush her mobile phone ... up to the point that Raghav's defamation of Pallavi gets her thrown out of her family; Pallavi goes to live with Jaya and Kirti; Pallavi throws rocks at Raghav's car and tells Jaya how Raghav defamed her.

How would you have carried the story forward? The only requirement is that there must be romantic tension between Raghav and Pallavi. You can decide that they shouldn't marry, or that one should fall in love while the other resists, or even make Raghav a saṃnyāsī if that's the story you want to tell.

I have offered a few choices in the poll. Please have fun with votes and replies!

It's interesting to see the votes so far - majority in favour of the story as told: Raghav forces Pallavi to marry him, and both fall in love at the same time. A little more than a third of votes are for Raghav to force Pallavi, regret it, and propose when she is safe with her brother. No replies so far.

Personally, I think "forced marriage" is overdone on Indian daily dramas, and when the lead characters fall in love after that, I wonder if they are just accepting circumstances. These stories also typically have a distasteful moral of "elders know best" that encourages viewers to impose marital expectations on their kids, regardless of the diversity that exists in the real world. 😉 Maybe the creative teams like forced marriage because it is "dramatic" and allows the leads to share a bedroom while holding off on milestones like "I love you" to keep viewers hooked. However, the Mehndi Hai Rachnewali team has rushed us to "I love you" from both sides; now Raghav and Pallavi have no purpose on the show other than to play dress-up and pine for each other while one cabal of supporting characters tries to break them up and another cabal reassures viewers that they'll be fine. The promise that Pallavi would make Raghav a better person has been forgotten.

I thought the show was headed in the right direction when Raghav's facial expressions were showing his attraction to Pallavi developing into trust and love, while Pallavi's body language showed that she was compassionate and playful but still uncomfortable with him. The creative team should have kept us watching for Raghav to fall deeper in love and develop new positive habits that include Pallavi in his decisions, while Pallavi's feelings for Raghav would slowly deepen from compassion to friendship to trust and love.

This is something that another show that I follow has done rather well. On Sundara Manamadhe Bharali (a Marathi show), Abhimanyu's attraction to Latika has progressed over several months: first he couldn't resist her sweet dishes; then she agreed to start exercising with him; she organized his life goals; he helped her to realize that she is physically beautiful; he developed jealousy over her; she saved his life and his good credit; he missed his chance to say, "I love you," and now he has to convince her to return to their marriage, but Latika still laughs at the idea that she would fall in love with Abhimanyu. That's the way to keep viewers interested in a love story - let the characters grow into their love!

Originally posted by: BrhannadaArmour

It's interesting to see the votes so far - majority in favour of the story as told: Raghav forces Pallavi to marry him, and both fall in love at the same time. A little more than a third of votes are for Raghav to force Pallavi, regret it, and propose when she is safe with her brother. No replies so far.

Personally, I think "forced marriage" is overdone on Indian daily dramas, and when the lead characters fall in love after that, I wonder if they are just accepting circumstances. These stories also typically have a distasteful moral of "elders know best" that encourages viewers to impose marital expectations on their kids, regardless of the diversity that exists in the real world. 😉 Maybe the creative teams like forced marriage because it is "dramatic" and allows the leads to share a bedroom while holding off on milestones like "I love you" to keep viewers hooked. However, the Mehndi Hai Rachnewali team has rushed us to "I love you" from both sides; now Raghav and Pallavi have no purpose on the show other than to play dress-up and pine for each other while one cabal of supporting characters tries to break them up and another cabal reassures viewers that they'll be fine. The promise that Pallavi would make Raghav a better person has been forgotten.

I thought the show was headed in the right direction when Raghav's facial expressions were showing his attraction to Pallavi developing into trust and love, while Pallavi's body language showed that she was compassionate and playful but still uncomfortable with him. The creative team should have kept us watching for Raghav to fall deeper in love and develop new positive habits that include Pallavi in his decisions, while Pallavi's feelings for Raghav would slowly deepen from compassion to friendship to trust and love.

This is something that another show that I follow has done rather well. On Sundara Manamadhe Bharali (a Marathi show), Abhimanyu's attraction to Latika has progressed over several months: first he couldn't resist her sweet dishes; then she agreed to start exercising with him; she organized his life goals; he helped her to realize that she is physically beautiful; he developed jealousy over her; she saved his life and his good credit; he missed his chance to say, "I love you," and now he has to convince her to return to their marriage, but Latika still laughs at the idea that she would fall in love with Abhimanyu. That's the way to keep viewers interested in a love story - let the characters grow into their love!

you did not give an option of them falling in love before organically… the plot is still the same so that is the most sensible option… I am not a big fan of him dropping off and then they met again due to some serendipity stuff if you remove last kirti defamation incident and raghav’s retaliation then they did have progress in terms of attraction towards each other ..there was a dialogue in the show

dushmani ka safar aadat pr jakr kb thehra mje pta hi ni chla..,

something like that …ldte ldte they fell in love and didn’t realize and then them trying to gauge the other person’s feelings and then once they blurted out to each other .. their families rivalry … there is a lot that can be explored or showed without whole forced marriage…but if you give that scenario that is the only plausible thing or may be raghav got to know that pallavi is innocent just after VD got admitted in hospital and he tried everything in his power to clear her name making her fall in love with him… he though having a pull towards her denying those feelings thinking he us not good enough for her when suddenly Mandar’s entry shook him to the core and he has to do what any don would do in this situation…

I mean I have ideas .. I am ok with hatred turned husband-wife - turned lovers thing

but I would have wanted hatred turned ceasefire turned friends turned lovers turned husband-wife …

You're right, nikkiGarg, I didn't set the branch point earlier in the story because the problem that interested me was: how can a romance progress after one character has destroyed the other's life?

"Raghav moves in with Deshmukhs" was my allusion to him doing everything in his power to clear her name - the alternative that you suggested.

I don't think you've shared any fan fiction. Do you write any? I joined this forum to share a fan fiction in which I had Raghav asking Pallavi, "How could you ever see any good deed of mine as sincere? How could you put your trust in me and start a new life with me?" If you want to know Pallavi's answer, you can find the story in my profile or the Story Index thread.