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Bollywood, streaming giants on edge as Amazon gets flak for hurting religious beliefs in India

Bollywood, streaming giants on edge as Amazon gets flak for hurting religious beliefs in India

The Tandav case has Netflix, Amazon Prime inspecting scripts and deleting potentially controversial scenes.
05 Mar, 2021

Controversy in India over Amazon’s political drama Tandav has put Bollywood and global video streaming giants on edge, prompting a closer scrutiny of scripts for possible offence to religious sentiments in a key growth market.

Companies like Amazon’s Prime Video and Netflix are inspecting planned shows and scripts, with some even deleting scenes that could be controversial, five Bollywood directors and producers, and two industry sources said.

This comes as Amazon Prime Video has become embroiled in legal cases and police complaints alleging Tandav depicts Hindu gods and goddesses in a derogatory manner and offends religious beliefs. Tandav, a Hindi word meaning fury, stars top Bollywood actors.

Public outcry over obscenity and religious depictions are common in culturally sensitive India, but the Tandav issue snowballed as police questioned Amazon India’s head of original content for Prime Video for hours following official complaints.

Fearing arrest, Aparna Purohit put in an anticipatory bail plea, which was declined by a state court but the Supreme Court on Friday gave her protection from arrest.

“Scripts are being read and re-read now,” said a producer from Bollywood, India’s Hindi film industry. “Streaming platforms are vetting content for anything that they see as a red flag,” the producer added, declining to be named.

Amazon has decided to delay streaming a new season of a popular Hindi spy thriller, The Family Man, which was to release last month, four of the sources told Reuters.

The show, Amazon says, is about an Indian intelligence officer’s efforts in his “high-pressure, and low paying job”.

While Amazon declined to comment, one of the sources said the delay was “a ripple effect of what happened with Tandav.

Amazon recently issued a public apology “to anyone who felt hurt” by Tandav, saying some objectionable scenes had been removed.

India, the world’s second-most populous nation with 1.3 billion people, is a valuable market for Amazon and its rivals Netflix and Walt Disney Co’s Disney+ Hotstar.

Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said at an event last year that Prime Video was doing well globally “but nowhere it’s doing better than India”.

Netflix has announced 41 new shows and films for 2021 in India, versus around 30 new titles released in 2020.

Too Much Risk

Unlike films, content on video streaming platforms currently face no censorship in India.

But some lawmakers and supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Hindu nationalist party say certain shows on Amazon and Netflix promote obscenity or hurt religious beliefs.

A member of the ruling party’s youth wing has made a police complaint against Netflix, objecting to scenes in the series A Suitable Boy showing a Hindu girl kissing a Muslim boy against the backdrop of a Hindu temple.

Netflix is closely tracking Amazon’s Tandav cases, one entertainment industry source said. Netflix declined to comment.

One scene from Tandav removed by Amazon after release was around a stage play where a person acting as the Hindu god Shiva seeks suggestions on how to increase his social media following after someone says Lord Ram was becoming very popular online.

Revered characters of faith have “been lampooned and portrayed in a very cheap” way, the state court judge observed while declining Purohit’s anticipatory bail plea.

The Supreme Court, however, gave her protection from arrest subject to her co-operation in the case.

Her lawyer said Amazon was willing to cut more scenes from Tandav if desired.

Among the biggest fallout of the controversy is the rising fear of arrests. Some producers are asking for clauses in their contracts with streaming services to protect them from lawsuits.

“It’s just too much of a risk and not worth the headache, especially if you are being threatened with jail,” a producer said.

Comments

Roma Mar 05, 2021 05:16pm
No one has a right to insult Islam.
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Ga Mar 05, 2021 05:57pm
So Freedom of Speech only applies to France hurting Muslim sentinents?
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Zak Mar 05, 2021 07:17pm
A fascist nation wants a fascist narrative.
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Paddy Mar 05, 2021 08:00pm
Their country their rules.
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Bala Mar 05, 2021 08:50pm
@Zak Can pakistan tolerate can tolerate criticism on the largest religion. The point is no criticism on any religion. How come you call this as Facist.
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Phil Mirante Mar 05, 2021 09:33pm
At least no one is killed in the name of religion or no public property burned. Hopefully the dopes of Bollywood, like Aparna Purohit, get the message and stop the trope that is depicted in countless Bollywood movies. The trope being an honest Muslim Hero and a Tilak or Vibhuti wearing religious Hindu villain. People have noticed and are not going to take it lying down anymore.
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RJ Mar 05, 2021 10:16pm
Hindu religion unlike many other religions has the ability to self criticize and evolve. The BJP wallahs don't understand it and are behaving like bigots.
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Zak Mar 05, 2021 10:16pm
@Paddy Their country their rules.' That's what west said about Hitler Germany. End result 20 million dead and 50 million maimed.
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Zak Mar 05, 2021 10:18pm
@Roma No one has a right to insult Islam. Correct, no one has right to insult any proper religion but mythological one's are just stories.
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hemant Mar 05, 2021 10:21pm
Have you see OTT serials getting shown in Amazon, Netflix, Sonylive and other platforms? They shows almost porn on such platform. If you want you can see Sacred Games on netflix! You would learn all bad words in Hindi as well as how to have sex like maniac... So just dont jump to conclusion because this topic has come during BJP rule, if any government want some moral value in front of TV audiance, they better conrol such content.
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J Mar 05, 2021 10:38pm
@Zak... So its ok to insult Islam?
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Nizamuddin Ahmad Aali Mar 05, 2021 11:00pm
How much narrowminded one can be who will criticize a play/drama participants. This is a clear sign of the religious intolerance of India. This attitude mirrors the mentality of Modi's Hindutva prejudiced mind. Even Hitler would have accepted a jew playing as a Catholic priest in a play.
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Sane Mar 06, 2021 03:42am
Better respect the religion, days of hindu bashing are over.
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Arshad Mar 06, 2021 07:25am
Hurting the sentiments of and religious community is bad. We know that no religion is perfect.
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Kash Mar 06, 2021 08:40am
Tandav was boring though. Nothing special.
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Vivek Mar 06, 2021 09:05am
@Zak Don't worry. We know your religions stories as well.
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Vivek Mar 06, 2021 09:07am
@Arshad - You are wrong. Only Islam is the perfect religion on earth.
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P Ghosh Mar 06, 2021 09:21am
@Nizamuddin Ahmad Aali You are spot on. But you do not have the moral authority to say so.
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Rajon Mar 06, 2021 11:02am
@Zak So you have a right to insult a religion because it has mythological roots.?. It's obvious why you group of people stand for what you are
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kp Mar 06, 2021 11:58am
BJP government making fool of public because why Producer, Director and Actors are not arrested?
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Maria Mar 06, 2021 12:20pm
@Zak faux misogynistic cult is not religion, its a cult. While rest are spiritual ways.
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bhaRAT© Mar 06, 2021 03:58pm
@Zak "...but mythological one's are just stories." Correct. They are nice fairy tales and fantasies.
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Sana Mar 06, 2021 04:08pm
@Zak will you tolerate insulting a pedophle?
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Sana Mar 06, 2021 04:09pm
@Zak come and make rules for us Indians Zach after you pay your loans, find jobs for your youth and educate your kids and find food for your family you are wlecome
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