Tandav's legal wrangles continue

A still from Tandav

The controversy surrounding Tandav continues. Today, the Supreme Court will hear the plea of Amazon Prime Video's India head Aparna Purohit. She has challenged the Allahabad high court order rejecting her anticipatory bail in connection with the FIRs filed against her for hurting religious sentiments in the Saif Ali Khan-starrer. The streamer issued a statement, which read that "it again deeply regrets that viewers found certain scenes objectionable. This was never our intention, and that those scenes have been removed or edited." Last week, Purohit had filed her statement at a Lucknow police station.

In January, the top court refused to grant interim protection to Tandav crew from any coercive action and had asked them to move the concerned courts to seek bail in the matter. Purohit has been accused of the inappropriate depiction of Hindu deities, Uttar Pradesh police personnel and an adverse portrayal of a character in the role of prime minister in the web series.

On February 25, the Allahabad High Court declined to grant her anticipatory bail in the matter. The High court had observed, "Western filmmakers have refrained from ridiculing Lord Jesus or the Prophet but Hindi filmmakers have done this repeatedly and are still doing this most unabashedly with Hindu gods and goddesses."

The High Court noted the tendency on the part of the Hindi film industry is growing and if not curbed in time, it may have disastrous consequences for the Indian social, religious and communal order.

Balbir Azad lodged an FIR on January 19 at Rabupura police station of Greater Noida. Azad had alleged that the web series had deliberately denigrated Hindu gods and goddesses and depicted Uttar Pradesh and its police in a poor light.

Several other FIRs have also been lodged in states like Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Bihar and Delhi against the web series. Tandav, a nine-episode political thriller starring Bollywood A-listers Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia and Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, started streaming recently on Amazon.

Edited by mid-day online desk, with inputs from agencies