On Wednesday the Supreme Court refused to give any kind of protection to the makers of the Amazon Prime web series Tandav. Saif Ali Khan, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, and Ali Abbas Zafar may face stinging legal troubles and even the possibility of being arrested is on the cards.
Everyone knew that Tandav was going to be one of the most controversial series in recent times yet nobody could have imagined the level to which this row has escalated. It does make us question whether any fictional show with a sensitive topic can be made under the current ecosystem.
The Supreme court refused any kind of relief by stating that ‘Right to freedom of speech is not absolute.’ The lawyers of actor Zeeshan Ayyub have been trying to defend him by saying that his fictional character cannot be attributed to his real-life personality.
M.R Shah responded, “You accepted the contract after reading the script. You cannot hurt religious sentiments.” This has had a starkly contrasting response by people on both sides of the paradigm. Actor Mukul Chadda in a tweet then let his thoughts on the situation where he alleged that in the future murderers on screen can be tried for the same as they had read the script.
Gauahar Khan reacted to the tweet with emojis that could be interpreted as people should take notice of what is happening here.
This opens up a whole new case of how much creative freedom lies with the makers of any project. This also opens up liabilities for actors as they can then be tried under court for practically anything that their character does even if it may not be endorsed by them in their personal life.
Tolerance has always been a fine line and opinions can be easily swayed in a time when communities are getting highly polarised. We can write this as any other news article but would that even do justice to the issues that are being faced here. Tandav may just be the start but as a responsible audience, you should ask yourself. Where do we draw the line and where do we separate fact from fiction?