Tandav Controversy: Amazon Prime Video Issues Apology; Says ‘Respect Diverse Beliefs’

The country head of Amazon Prime Video, Aparna Purohit, also recorded her statement on the 'Tandav' controversy a few days back. Read on for more details.

Image courtesy - Sunil Grover (@whosunilgrover/Instagram)

New Delhi: Amazon Prime Video’s web series ‘Tandav’ landed into a pool of controversies soon after its release. Starring Saif Ali Khan in the lead role, this web series got surrounded by legal notices as allegedly ‘Tandav’ has insulted Lord Rama and Lord Shiva in the first episode. This particular incident has apparently hurt Hindu sentiments and soon after a notice was served to the makers and actors of the web series.

A few days back, the country head of Amazon Prime Video, Aparna Purohit, also recorded her statement at the Hazratganj Police Station on the directives of the Allahabad High Court.

Now, according to the latest update, the OTT platform Amazon Prime Video has released a statement thereby issuing an apology to the viewers. The statement read, “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.”

Earlier, the director of ‘Tandav’, Ali Abbas Zafar also released a statement on behalf of the cast and crew of the political web series. The statement read, “We have been closely monitoring viewer reactions to the web series Tandav and today during a discussion, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting have informed us regarding a large number of grievances and petitions received on various facets of the web series with serious concerns and apprehensions regarding its content hurting the sentiments of the people.”

“The web series 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 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”, added the filmmaker.

Meanwhile, other than Saif Ali Khan, ‘Tandav’ also stars Dimple Kapadia, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Sunil Grover, Dino Morea, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, Kritika Kamra and Gauahar Khan.

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