One of the show’s most iconic motifs is a piece of yellow fabric (the bande yaar —"tell me, friend") that Avni ties around Advay’s wrist. This object functions as a Lacanian objet petit a —a stand-in for unattainable desire and repressed emotion. The scarf symbolizes a pact of equality (friend to friend) rather than a lover’s token, subverting the sindoor (vermillion) as the traditional signifier of marital possession.
According to Broadcast Audience Research Council (BARC) data, IPKKND2’s TRP averaged 2.1 in its first three months but fell below 1.5 by August 2016. This drop coincided with the rise of Yeh Hai Mohabbatein and Kumkum Bhagya , which maintained traditional female suffering arcs. The conclusion is clear: the Indian primetime audience was habituated to melodramatic victimhood; a heroine who could fight back created cognitive dissonance.
Indian television, gender studies, fan studies, Iss Pyaar Ko Naam Doon 2 , Barun Sobti, serial narrative.
This paper posits two central questions: (1) How does IPKKND2 deconstruct and reconstruct the male gaze through Avni’s agency? (2) Why did a critically acclaimed pairing and high-production-value show fail to maintain ratings, leading to a rushed conclusion?
The plot follows Avni, a Rajput woman trained in martial arts, who believes she is seeking a man named Shlok. Simultaneously, Advay, a brooding industrialist, seeks revenge against the person who killed his twin brother. The show’s inciting incident—Avni mistakenly identifying Advay as Shlok—creates a high-tension farce.
The Indian television landscape, dominated by daily soaps, often relies on recycled formulas: patriarchal families, identity switches, and virtuous suffering. Iss Pyaar Ko Naam Doon 2 (translated: Let me name this love 2 ), which aired on StarPlus from November 2015 to November 2016, attempted a tonal departure. Created by Gul Khan under the banner 4 Lions Films, the series starred Barun Sobti (Advay Singh Raizada) and Shivani Tomar (Avni Singh). Unlike its predecessor—which focused on a lawyer and a chef in a marriage of convenience—IPKKND2 centered on revenge, mistaken identity, and a heroine who physically confronts the hero.
Despite a strong first half (Episodes 1–150), the show experienced a sharp decline. By Episode 180, the original revenge plot was resolved prematurely. The production was forced to introduce a “leap” (time jump), turning Advay into a stereotypical amnesiac and Avni into a helpless mother—a trope the show had originally resisted.
For future Indian serials, IPKKND2 offers a warning: radical character design without structural industry support leads to narrative truncation. Nevertheless, for scholars of global television, it provides a rich archive of how gender performativity is negotiated, contested, and ultimately co-opted by conservative production logics.
