‘Tandav’ over Tandav Web Series

No anticipatory bail to Amazon Prime Video’s Commercial Head

The Allahabad High Court on Thursday rejected the anticipatory bail application of Amazon Prime Video’s commercial head, Aparna Purohit, in the ongoing investigation against the web series ‘Tandav’.

Purohit was accused of the inappropriate depiction of Uttar Pradesh police personnel, Hindu deities and adverse portrayal of a character playing the prime minister in the web series.

Justice Siddharth, while rejecting the application, said that though the applicant was earlier granted interim protection from arrest by another bench in a similar case, she was not cooperating with the investigation.

Petitioner’s plea was that the web series was a work of fiction. There was no intention of the applicant to outrage the religious sentiments of any community.

The state government’s counsel argued that a total of ten FIRs and four criminal complaints have been filed relating to the disputed web series across the country. It shows that merely one person is not affected by the conduct of the applicant rather several people across the country have felt that the web series is offensive and hence they lodged FIRs/complaints.

“It is not a stray case of some over-sensitive individual lodging the FIR against the applicant and other co-accused persons regarding objectionable character and content of the web series in dispute,” added the counsel.

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The court, after hearing the concerned parties, observed, “The basic philosophy of the Constitution is to permit the people of all faith to practice, profess and propagate their religion freely without hurting or acting against the people who profess or practice different religious faith than theirs. Therefore, it is an onerous duty of every citizen to respect the feelings of the people of other faith even while making a fiction”.

Referring to certain scenes of the web-series, the court observed, “the scenes in dispute are likely to cause disturbance and threats to public order. The reference to Hindu Gods and Goddesses in the scenes in dispute in berating light cannot be justified.”

The court observed, “Western filmmakers have refrained from ridiculing Lord Jesus or the Prophet but Hindi filmmakers have done this repeatedly and still doing this most unabashedly with the Hindu Gods and Goddesses.”

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