Bharatiya Janata Party MP Manoj Kotak has written to Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar seeking a ban on Amazon Prime Video's series Tandav for allegedly ridiculing Hindu deities.
In a statement, the streamer said it "deeply regrets" the fact that viewers considered certain scenes to be objectionable and added that those have already been removed.
The petitioner's plea was that the web series was a work of fiction. There was no intention of the applicant to outrage the religious feeling of any community.
From convincing film-makers to do shows for online, to having a slate with some of the best films and shows, Amazon Prime Video has come a long way since it came to India four years ago.
It also alleged that the person occupying the high post of Prime Minister of India has been portrayed in a very belittling manner besides there are scenes in which castes have been presented as low and high and women in an insulting manner.
'The cast and crew of Tandav unconditionally apologise if it has unintentionally hurt anybody's sentiments.'
Tandav, a nine-episode political thriller starring Bollywood A-listers Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia and Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, started streaming last week but the show landed in a huge controversy over its depiction of Hindu deities.
The major fallout is the complete obliteration of religion and politics from Indian cinema, notes Subhash K Jha.
A scene of a play and a conversation between two key characters were snipped from the first episode Tanashah, a day after the cast and crew of the nine-part starry political saga on Amazon Prime Video once again apologised and said they had decided to implement changes to address the concerns raised.
Tandav is as mainstream and contrived as it gets, but not completely without its moments of charisma and drama, observes Sukanya Verma.
Tandav promises to be thrilling. Moumita Bhattacharjee hopes it lives up to this.
8 instances when Indian movies and Web shows were neck deep in trouble!
The price for pushing the envelope beyond the comfort zone that the land of storytelling is used to is a hefty one, observes Meghna Chadha.
It also granted protection from arrest to Amazon Prime Video's India head Aparna Purohit in first information reports lodged over web series Tandav.
'I haven't done TV in quite some time now but I have faced this bias.' 'It's not that I feel unwelcome.' 'It's just that when it comes to certain things, I get shortlisted and they tell me that my test was really good but the producer wants a film face.'
The Supreme Court on Wednesday declined to grant interim protection from arrest to Ali Abbas Zafar, director of the web series Tandav, and others seeking the quashing of FIRs against them for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of Hindus, and issued notices Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh and other states on their pleas.
The second season of Raj and DK's popular Web series will now be aired in June!
City Of Dreams 2 released recently, and is quite a must watch.
Food, family, politics, superheroes, serial killers, there's a little bit of everything. Sukanya Verma recommends what to catch on OTT this week.
The actor has been criticising protesting farmers over their agitations against the Centre's three farm laws.
'A balance has to be struck as some OTT platforms are also showing pornographic materials on their platforms'
'Comedy is difficult to pull off because it is all about timing.'
'I find drawing inspiration for characters from real life very limiting.'
The boy from Kanpur kept his audiences in theatres, on television and lately on social media platforms engaged with vivid societal sketches, be it about travelling in Mumbai's famous locals or lampooning queues at wedding buffets.
There is nothing of the level of Yes Minister, House Of Cards, Madam Secretary or Veep but there are at least 10 Hindi series and an OTT-released film or two, to whet the viewer's appetite for power-mongering, corruption and intrigue.
The government on Thursday announced new rules to curb misuse of social media platforms, as it mandated firms to appoint grievance officer, disclose the first originator of the mischievous information and remove, within 24 hours, content depicting nudity or morphed pictures of women.
'What you do today defines what you are going to be tomorrow.'
