“We unconditionally apologise for hurting the sentiments of Hindus…” Amazon India releases statement

Amazon Prime Video, the OTT platform out of may which has been under fire after the ‘Hinduphobic scenes’ has issued an unconditional apology over its show ‘Tandav’, saying it “deeply regrets that viewers considered certain scenes to be objectionable”.

The apology comes days after a single-judge bench of the Allahabad High Court rejected an anticipatory bail application filed by Aparna Purohit, a top Amazon executive, over a police complaint filed against the show in Uttar Pradesh.

“We respect our viewers’ diverse beliefs and apologise 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 all laws of India and respecting the diversity of culture and beliefs of our audiences,” the company added.

An FIR was filed against Aparna Purohit, the head of India Originals at Amazon Sellers Service Pvt Ltd, and six other co-accused that said the web series has content that hurts religious sentiments of Hindus.

Objection was raised by a section of society over a sequence featuring Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub, for his depiction of Lord Shiva in a play within the show.

Alot of recent such shows on several OTT platforms surfaced with a trend of ‘boycotting’ these shows/movies which portrayed any single fraction of edgy offensive content.

The government too has issued that they will soon be releasing terms for vigilance and regulation of OTT platforms like Netflix, Amazon Prime, Disney Hotstar etc, the list will also be including online News Portals and Social media platforms.