Tandav cast, crew offered an "unconditional apology" on Monday following police complaints
Highlights
- 'Tandav' makers agree to make changes "to address concerns"
- The cast, crew offered an "unconditional apology" on Monday
- Series triggered protests, FIRs for allegedly insulting Hindu gods
The makers of Amazon Prime series Tandav have said they will make changes in the content "to address concerns", a little over 24 hours after a police complaint was filed over hurting religious sentiments. The statement made on Tuesday came after the Tandav cast and crew had on Monday offered an "unconditional apology" following police complaints in Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh that alleged some scenes "insulted Hindu gods and goddesses".
"The cast and crew of Tandav have made the decision to implement changes to the web series to address the concerns raised towards the same... We once again apologise if the series has unintentionally hurt anybody's sentiments," the cast and crew of Tandav said in a statement.
"We have outmost respect for the sentiments of the people of our country. We did not intend to hurt or 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," they said.
The web series, which stars Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, was released on Friday. It quickly triggered protests and drew criticism on social media. The makers of the web series maintain that the show runs with a disclaimer that's standard in the industry, and that Tandav was a "work of fiction" and "any resemblance to acts and persons and events is purely coincidental".
A complaint filed on by a policeman in Uttar Pradesh said that 17 minutes into the first episode, he saw "people dressed up in a very bad manner to represent Hindu gods and goddesses... shown to speak in a very uncalled for language... that hurts religious sentiments".
The makers of Tandav increasingly came under criticism after an aide of UP Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath warned those named in the police complaint to "be prepared to pay the price". "Be prepared to pay the price for hurting religious sentiments... UP Police has left for Mumbai in a vehicle," Mr Adityanath's advisor Shalabh Mani Tripathi tweeted in Hindi, alluding to gangster Vikas Dubey, who was killed in an encounter last year while being transported in a police vehicle.
The complaint filed with UP Police alleged that in one of the episodes of Tandav, there are "conversations that lead to caste conflict, there are similar scenes in many other episodes."
"...The character of the person occupying the high post of India's Prime Minister has been shown in a very indecent manner. The series depicts lower and higher castes and scenes that insult women, and the intent... seems to be to hurt religious feelings of one community and to spread conflict," the police complaint reads.
In Maharashtra, Saif Ali Khan was singled out by BJP MLA Ram Kadam, who tweeted, "Saif Ali Khan is once again part of a film or series that has (hurt) Hindu sentiments".
On Tuesday, a case was also registered against the director and the writer of the web series in Madhya Pradesh's Jabalpur.