Frontlist | Amazon Prime Issues Apology Over ‘Tandav’ After New Rules For OTT Platforms

Frontlist | Amazon Prime Issues Apology Over ‘Tandav’ After New Rules For OTT Platforms
on Mar 04, 2021

Amazon Prime Video has issued an 'unconditional' apology on the Tandav row. A slew of FIRs were filed against the show in multiple parts of the country for allegedly creating a possibility of religious tension, portraying Hindu Gods in a bad light and using casteist scenes and dialogues in the series.

AMAZON ISSUES APOLOGY

The streaming website has now again issued an apology on the issue. Their statement reads, Amazon Prime Video again deeply regrets that viewers considered certain scenes to be objectionable in the recently launched fictional series Tandav. 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 apologize 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.

TANDAV MAKERS REMOVE CONTROVERSIAL SCENES

Earlier, the show's director, Ali Abbas Zafar, had released a statement, announcing that they had dropped the controversial scenes from the show. He also apologised in the statement. The statement read, We have utmost respect for the sentiments of the people of our country. We did not intend to hurt or offend the sentiments of any individual, caste, community, race, religion or religious beliefs or insult or outrage any institution, political party or person, living or dead. The cast & crew of Tandav have made the decision to implement the changes to the web series to address the concerns raised towards the same. We thank the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for the guidance & support in the matter. We once again apologise if the series has unintentionally hurt anybody’s sentiments (sic).

CENTRE REGULATES OTT CONTENT

The Centre announced new rules in February to “establish a soft touch progressive institutional mechanism with a level playing field featuring a Code of Ethics and a three-tier grievance redressal framework for news publishers and OTT platforms on the digital media.” The Code of Ethics will be applicable to online news and digital media entities, OTT platforms and digital media.