SC issues notice to the makers of Mirzapur and Amazon Prime Video; accused of spoiling UP’s image
New Delhi, January 21, 2021: While the controversy of Amazon Prime Video’s new web series ‘Tandav’ is still ongoing, another case has emerged. The Supreme Court has sought a response by issuing a notice to the makers of the series ‘Mirzapur’ and Amazon Prime Video on the allegations of spoiling the image of Mirzapur district of Uttar Pradesh. A petition has been filed in the Supreme Court regarding these allegations, on which the Supreme Court has served notice.
The ‘Mirzapur’ web series has been produced by Farhan Akhtar and Ritesh Sidhwani. Its first season was streamed on Amazon Prime in 2018. The second season streamed in October of 2020. Mirzapur is a crime drama web series, the story of which is shown in several districts of eastern Uttar Pradesh. In the series, Pankaj Tripathi plays Akhandanand Tripathi, who runs a crime syndicate and owns an illegal arms business. Ali Fazal, Divyendu Sharma, Vikrant Massey, Rasika Duggal, Shweta Tripathi Sharma and Kulbhushan Kharbanda play the lead characters.
Before this, the police had lodged an FIR against the makers of Mirzapur- Ritesh Sidhwani, Farhan Akhtar and Bhaumik Gondaliya under the sections 295A, 504 and 505 of the Indian Penal Code at the Kotwali Dehat police station for allegations of hurting religious sentiments and spoiling the image of the district. The report was filed by Arvind Chaturvedi, who says that the web series shows abusive and illicit relations.
Amazon Prime Video’s political-thriller web series known as Tandav is also at the centre of controversy these days. The series has been accused of hurting religious sentiments and hurting the sentiments of some castes by inappropriate comments. However, the producers of the series apologized, declaring the disputed scenes and dialogues to be removed. In the series, Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia and Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub are the main characters.
