After Tandav makers, now Amazon Prime shares an apology

Lahore, 3rd March: The famous online streaming website Amazon Prime has apologised for offending Hindu sentiment through the Indian series ‘Tandav’.

Baaghi TV: According to reports, the Indian ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) lodged defamation petitions against the ‘Tandav’ team at various police stations over controversial content, and asked the entire team, including the streaming website to offer an apology.

According to reports, the series, created by a Muslim filmmaker Ali Abbas Zafar, had a scene in which a Muslim actor, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, portrayed a Hindu God.

This scene created an uproar in India after which it was edited out and Ayyub apologised but Hindu nationalists called out to bou=ycott Amazon Prime.

As per reports from Variety, Amazon wrote in its apology, “Amazon Prime Video again deeply regrets that viewers considered certain scenes to be objectionable in the recently launched fictional series Tandav.

The apology added, “This was never our intention, and the scenes that were objected to were removed or edited when they were brought to our attention. We respect our viewers’ diverse beliefs and apologise unconditionally to anyone who felt hurt by these scenes. Our teams follow company content evaluation processes, which we acknowledge need to be constantly updated to better serve our audiences. We will continue to develop entertaining content with partners, while complying with the laws of India and respecting the diversity of culture and beliefs of our audiences.”

Last week when Indian police questioned a top Amazon executive about the show, the controversy escalated.

According to reports from Variety, the Indian government has published a set of regulations for streaming platforms and social media sites.

The Digital Media Ethics Code warns, “The category classification of a content will take into account the potentially offensive impact of a film on matters such as caste, race, gender, religion, disability or sexuality that may arise in a wide range of works, and the classification decision will take account of the strength or impact of their inclusion”.

According to earlier reports, the makers of ‘Tandav’ had already issued an apology when a BJP leader filed a case against them and claimed that it stirred a religious controversy.

Released in January, Tandav is a political thriller series featuring Saif Ali Khan and Dimple Kapadia in the main lead.

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