Tandav creates controversy to deliberately insult Hindus

Bollywood is at it again. This time with Saif Ali Khan’s web series Tandav – Hindu Gods have been insulted and ridiculed – Not acceptable.

Producer turned actor Saif Ali Khan has produced Tandav a web series for the Amazon Prime Video OTT platform in which Hindu Gods have been ridiculed and trivialised. This trait of insulting Hindus would simply not stop. First it was Adipurush controversy in which the same Saif Ali Khan said the movie would try to justify the “kidnapping of Sita Mata”. And now Tandav in which fun is poked on Lord Rama and God Shiva.

Despite warnings after Adipurush and Saif’s apology, Tandav and in it Hindu Gods’ ridicule went ahead.

And rightly, Hindus are upset. But the irony is – these upset Hindus – victims of this ridicule are being attacked by people on Twitter and social media for being ignorant and fanatics at best and Hindu terrorists at worst.

The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting (I&B) on Sunday sought an explanation from online streaming platform Amazon Prime Video. It issued a notice to the same in response to the complaints filed against the Tandav web series for hurting religious sentiments and denigrating Hindu gods and goddesses.

YouTubers have made appeals to people in the authority to take cognizance of the issue and help and many of them are angry at the persistent and continued attack by Bollywood on Hinus in the name of creative art.

BJP MP from Mumbai North_East Manoj Kotak has written to the dormant Prakash Javdekar Information and Broadcasting Minister of India seeking a ban on Amazon Prime Video’s webseries ‘Tandav’ over ridiculing Hindu deities.

The web series is a political drama starring Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Sunil Grover, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Dino Morea, Kumud Mishra, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, Gauhar Khan and Kritika Kamra. The sole purpose of the series is to justify anti-India activities of some groups in JNU. The actions of champions of Shaheen Bagh – who were practically the same group in addition to some paid and other fake leaders – have also been glorified and at the same time students of Muslim faith have been shown to be totally innocent – never interested in anything other than their home, school-college and back home.

The public record in India and the Court records at various levels show a very different and opposite picture.

The director and producer of Tandav denied to comment on the controversy

Many organisations and individuals have complained that Hindu gods and goddesses have been ridiculed in ‘Tandav’ web series.

“Hence, we have made a demand to Javadekar ji and have written to him to ban the web series immediately. The actors, producers and directors should apologise for hurting sentiments,” Manoj Kotak added.

Sharing the picture of his letter to Javadekar on Twitter, Kotak said as there is no law or autonomous body governing digital content and films on such platforms are full of sex, violence, drugs, abuse, hate and vulgarity.

“They also hurt religious sentiments,” he added.

Ram Kadam, a BJP MLA from Ghatkopar West, has also asked the director to remove the portion of the web series in which Lord Shiva is allegedly ridiculed.

He has also filed a complaint in this connection at the suburban Ghatkopar police station.

When contacted about the complaints, Amazon Prime Video PR said the platform “won’t be responding” on the matter.

Recently the government brought OTT platforms including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ Hotstar under the ambit of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting. Thus minister Javadekar does have the powers to take action against the Tandav team.

Tandav director Ali Abbas Zafar has offered to edit objectionable parts.

“The cast and crew of Tandav have made the decision to implement changes to the web series to address the concerns raised…We thank the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for the guidance and support in the matter. We once again apologize if the series has unintentionally hurt anybody’s sentiments,” Zafar wrote in a statement published through his social media channels.

By the time this story was going live, countless Hindus and Hindu organizations nationwide have raised their voice against the web series and asking for it to be banned.

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