Tandav Row: Amazon Prime Video Apologises Unconditionally For Its Show, Says ‘Already Removed Scenes’

Amazon Prime Video on Tandav: We respect our viewers' diverse beliefs and apologise unconditionally to anyone who felt hurt by these scenes.

Tandav Row: Streaming platform Amazon Prime Video on Tuesday apologised unconditionally for its show Tandav and said it has already removed scenes found objectionable by viewers. The political saga, starring Saif Ali Khan and Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, attracted huge controversy for a scene depicting a college theatrical programme, leading to allegations that the show hurt religious sentiments and multiple FIRs. “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”.

The cast and the crew of the Ali Abbas Zafar-directed series apologised twice. Eventually, the team decided to cut the objectionable portions.

What was the Tandav Controversy all about?

After the premiere of the web series, Tandav, ertain Hindu organisations and political leaders had objected to certain scenes and had urged that the particular scenes should be banned from public viewing. A huge row broke out after a complaint in Uttar Pradesh. The complainant had objected to ‘people dressed up in a very bad manner to represent Hindu gods and goddesses’. The matter became massive after Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath warned the makers and others named in the FIR to be ready to ‘pay the price’. However, Filmmaker Ali Abbas Zafar issued an unconditional apology and later, removed the ‘objectionable’ scenes from the web-series.

The web series features an ensemble cast including Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Sunil Grover, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Dino Morea Kumud Mishra, Gauahar Khan, Amyra Dastur, Mohd. Zeeshan Ayyub, Kritika Kamra, Sarah Jane Dias, Sandhya Mridul, Annup Sonii, Hitten Ttejwani, Paresh Pahuja, and Shonali Nagrani among others.