New Delhi: Streaming platform Amazon Prime Video, on Tuesday, once again apologised for its show Tandav and said it has already removed scenes found objectionable by viewers. This is the platform’s third apology for the show.
The cast and the crew of the Ali Abbas Zafar-directed series have apologised twice before.
The political saga, starring Saif Ali Khan and Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub, attracted a volley of outrage from a section of viewers for a scene depicting a college theatre programme with a mention of religious figures, leading to allegations that the show hurt religious sentiments.
Multiple FIRs were filed against the showrunners. One of the charges was that the show had encouraged “an adverse portrayal of a character playing the prime minister”.
Some portions of the series were cut following outrage as it released.
On February 25, rejecting the anticipatory bail plea filed by the head of Amazon Prime Video’s India Originals Aparna Purohit, the Allahabad high court had observed that “names and icons of faith of the majority community have been used to earn money”.
“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,” Amazon Prime said in a statement.
“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,” the company added.
The streamer said it 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”.
Although legal cases against Netflix and Amazon Prime Video shows for offending beliefs are not uncommon in India, it is rare for a US tech giant to publicly apologise, Reuters has noted in its report.
(With PTI inputs)