New Delhi:
The cast and crew of Amazon Prime Video’s “Tandav”, against whom police complaints have been filed alleging that some scenes had “insulted Hindu gods and goddesses”, issued an “unconditional” apology Monday evening, saying they did not intend to offend religious beliefs or sentiments.
They also referred to components of a disclaimer that is an market normal and stated “Tandav” was a “work of fiction” and that “any resemblance to acts and persons and events is purely coincidental”.
“‘Tandav’ is a work of fiction and any resemblance to acts and persons and events is purely coincidental. The cast and crew did not have any intention to 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 statement stated.
“The cast and crew of ‘Tandav’ take cognizance of the concerns expressed by the people and unconditionally apologize if it has unintentionally hurt anybody’s sentiments,” it added.
The apology comes right after the I&B Ministry sought a response from Amazon Prime.
“… today during a discussion, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting informed (of) a large number of grievances and petitions… serious concerns and apprehensions regarding its content hurting the sentiments of the people,” the “Tandav” makers’ statement stated.
The internet series, which stars Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, was released on Friday and immediately triggered outrage.
A complaint filed today by a Uttar Pradesh policeman stated that 17 minutes into the initially episode, “people dressed up in a very bad manner to represent Hindu gods and goddesses and have been shown to speak in a very uncalled for language… that hurts religious sentiments”.
In the identical episode there are “conversations that lead to caste conflict…” the complaint added, alleging that other scenes disrespected the workplace of the Prime Minister and insulted girls.
BJP leaders – such as Maharashtra MLA Ram Kadam and Kapil Mishra, who is accused of producing incendiary speeches that triggered final year’s Delhi violence – and quite a few Twitter customers have also hit out at the series.
A important aide of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath warned these named in the complaints to “be prepared to pay the price” and referred to police autos – a remark extensively observed as alluding to gangster Vikas Dubey, who was killed in a controversial encounter with UP Police final year.
The protests have also led to a political row, with opposition parties lining up to criticise the BJP. The JDU (the BJP’s Bihar ally) and the Samajwadi Party (in the opposition in UP) have spoken out.
The JDU’s KC Tyagi stated politicians could not choose film content and pointed out that superstar Amitabh Bachchan – a recognized supporter of the BJP – had challenged Shiva in his films.
Samajwadi Party chief Akhilesh Yadav, meanwhile, accused the BJP of acting out a “tandav (Shiva’s dance of destruction) on Tandav” to deflect consideration from the farmers’ protest. “Farmers are being dubbed terrorists and the NIA is summoning them. What is all this?” he asked.