Meera's swayamvar annoys fundamentalists

Pakistani starlet Meera is drawing widespread ire in her country for participating in a reality TV wedding show where she is out to select a groom.

Kaun Banega Meera Pati , being aired on Pakistan's Geo TV, draws inspiration from the swayamvar format of Indian shows such as Rakhi Ka Swayamvar and the currently- aired Ratan Ka Rishta .
On the show, Meera is currently getting acquainted with her 13 prospective grooms, one of whom will win her hand in the finale. The show has been on air in Pakistan for three weeks and has telecast three episodes so far. It airs once every week on Fridays for about an hour.
The show promos feature Meera, who has acquired the reputation of being Pakistan's drama queen, as a coy and blushing bride. " I am looking for an ordinary person with extraordinary qualities, to be my sharique- e- hayat ( husband)," she said.
Meera has declared that in the 26th and final episode, she will choose one of the 13 men for marriage. The prospective grooms include a software manager in a multinational firm, a civil engineer and a restaurant manager. " I am hopeful that I will be able to find the man of my dreams on this show," she said in the first episode.
While the show has raised curiosity so far because it is a novel concept in her country, a section of hardliners are clearly not happy with the idea of a Pakistani woman openly selecting her groom from among several men.
While Geo TV has not received any official protest yet, many feel that sustaining the show till its end could be difficult - what with the growing animosity on the net towards the concept. Clips of the show on YouTube, for instance, have drawn nasty comments about the actress and her prospective grooms.
One netizen, MrZah2010 wrote: " an inside source told me that all the losers ( guys) are actually struggling artist and they get between 2500- 5000 rupees per episode for dis show, meera's boyfriend is actually the producer of dis show who is 1 of da excutives in geo tv, dis is full k* njar mahol...( sic)". Baalo 2001 wrote: " The funniest show on tv.... starring the b* tch and 13 losers ( sic)." Meera has remained a controversial figure in India as well as Pakistan.
Not long ago, reports did the rounds suggesting she was married to a Pakistani businessman named Atiq- Ur- Rehman. Meera subsequently denied the reports. In 2005, Mahesh and Mukesh Bhatt launched her opposite Ashmit Patel in their production, Nazar .
The film bombed despite Meera sharing some steamy scenes with Ashmit. She reportedly received death threats from Islamic purists for doing the intimate scenes.
Meera recently returned to the limelight when she publicly accused Mahesh Bhatt of slapping her on the sets of his film.