Is Tandav row a fresh call for OTT censorship? PAATAL LOK A SUITABLE BOY

The Tandav row has once again brought to focus the debate over whether OTT content in India should be censored. While many netizens support the idea, others wonder if censorship is the only way to end controversy. In latest development, FIRs were registered against the makers and cast of Tandav, in Mumbai and Ranchi. Meanwhile, let us take a look at Hindi web projects that have run into trouble in the last few months.

MIRZAPUR 2

On Monday, an FIR was registered against producers of Amazon Prime’s show Mirzapur for hurting religious sentiments and spoiling the image of the Uttar Pradesh town. The FIR filed on the complaint of Arvind Chaturvedi at Mirzapur Kotwali (Dehat) police station, has named Mirzapur producers Ritesh Sidhwani, Farhan Akhtar and Bhaumik Gondaliya under IPC sections 295 A (deliberate and malicious acts, intended to outrage religious feelings of any class by insulting its religion or religious beliefs), 504 (intentional insult with intent to provoke breach of the peace), 505 (statements conducing to public mischief) of the IPC along with sections of the Information Technology (IT)

Released in May last year, it was produced by Bollywood actress Anushka Sharma. Delhi Sikh Gurdwara Management Committee president Manjinder Singh Sirsa had shared his concern about the depiction of Sikh characters in the series, which starred Jaideep Ahlawat, Neeraj Kabi, Ishwak Singh and Abhishek Bannerjee. He had especially objected to a scene where a Sikh man was shown to be raping a woman while another Sikh man watched. Indra Hang Subba, MP from Sikkim, had written to Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar over the sexist slur used by one of the characters on the show.

AASHRAM

The series has revived actor Bobby Deol’s career, but in November director Prakash Jha was served legal notice for allegedly hurting Hindu sentiments. The legal notice was sent to the OTT platform MX Player, which streams the show, as well as Jha, on the ground that was “directly targeting the ancient tradition, custom, culture of Hindu, Ashramas Dharma”. The notice was sent by Surjeet Singh, Pradesh Sangathan Mahamantri of Karni Sena. Then, in December a court in Jodhpur issued notice to Jha and Deol in a case filed against the series.

In November, an FIR was registered in Madhya Pradesh against two Netflix officials for allegedly hurting religious sentiments through the web series A Suitable Boy. “On the basis of a complaint filed by Gaurav Tiwari, an FIR is being registered under section 295 (A) (malicious acts to outrage and insulting the religious feelings and beliefs) of the Indian Penal Code (IPC) in Rewa against Netflix officials — Monika Shergill and Ambika Khurana,” Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narottam Mishra had said in a video.

AK Vs AK

The Indian Air Force was not too happy about Anil Kapoor wearing a wrong uniform in the Netflix mockumentary, which dropped digitally in December. While being in the uniform, Kapoor was seen using foul language, inappropriate and in violation of IAF’s behavioural standards.The Air Force urged the streaming platform Netflix to remove the scenes with the discrepancies. Anil later apologised for unintentionally hurting sentiments of the Indian Air Force.