Dear Amazon Prime Video, this is for you –
This is Netflix.
Netflix never censors.
Netflix always stands by its content.
Netflix never gives in to hardliners.
Be like Netflix.
Amazon Prime Video has been in the eye of a raging storm in India recently. Its Indian Original web show ‘Tandav‘ has raised the heckles of scores of people who have taken umbrage to a few scenes that purportedly depicted Hindu Gods in a questionable way. The harmless scenes became anathema to more and more people as social media blew up the issue beyond proportion. The beleaguered maker of the show Abbas Ali Zafar had to first issue an apology saying they didn’t mean to hurt the religious sentiments of anyone with their show. They even had to cut a few apparently offending scenes from the show before hardliners were appeased.
Not to be outdone, a fresh controversy has erupted over another Amazon Prime Video show ‘Mirzapur’. A Mirzapur resident says the show maligns the name of his beloved city by depicting it as a crime and violence hub. Seriously! Do disclaimers mean anything at all anymore in this strange new India?
The question arises – why is everyone gunning for Amazon Prime Video alone? Why are no cases filed against Netflix, when the Indian content on the streaming giant is equally guilty of some of the things Amazon Prime Video’s shows are being accused of. Netflix’s Ludo showed people dressed as Indian gods being lampooned. Its latest release The White Tiger is scathingly critical of Indian religious mores and divides. Earlier Netflix’s Chippa, Sacred Games, Ghoul, Leila all were accused of maligning Hinduism, and so on. Save for a few murmurs of protest, there was no major backlash – no #BanNetflix or #IHateNetflix slogans on Twitter. Even the few protests died down in a matter of days. A few cases were filed against Netflix, but the streaming behemoth won those easily. What matters is that Netflix stood firmly by its content creators, and its shows and movies.
The same scenario can be seen internationally. Thousands of Netflix subscribers cancelled their subscriptions after Netflix refused to pull down its controversial film, ‘Cuties’. Netflix was accused of sexualizing young preteen girls via the French film. As per Variety, “account cancellations hit a peak of about five times the churn rate of Jan. 1, 2019” after Cuties debuted on Netflix. The streaming giant, however, was unfazed. It stood by Cuties, and refused to give in to the increased din amongst its subscribers even as the hashtag #CancelNetflix trended on Twitter for days and days.
Similarly, around two million people signed a petition to ban the Netflix Original film The First Temptation Of Christ. The Goop Lab With Gwyneth Paltrow, , 365 Days, Messiah, The Crown Season 4, and several other Netflix properties were also criticised for various reasons, and demanded to be banned/censored/altered. In each case, Netflix firmly stood by its content and refused to entertain naysayers, even if it was from the Queen herself.
In each case, because Netflix stood firm, the protests died down within no time, and the offending content continues to stream on Netflix. Since the very beginning, right from conception, Netflix has remained firmly uncompromising on the issue of censorship. It is ingrained in its psyche and is an unwavering part of its streaming policy. Netflix doesn’t give in even if subscriptions are at stake, as happened with Cuties.
And this is exactly what Amazon Prime Video needs to learn from Netflix. Instead of being a softie and a pushover, it must stand by its content and for all that’s worth standing for, contest court cases with conviction and fight for the sanctity of streaming with all its might. Only then will hardliners realise that Amazon Prime Video means business.
So, cheesy as it may sound, when it comes to standing up to hardliners, Amazon Prime Video needs to do just one thing – ‘Be like Netflix’.
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