Netflix, the final citadel of “no censorship”, has finally fallen prey to the whims and fancies of the Indian government. As per a report in media publication The Hindu, Netflix has “bent its knee” to the demands of the ruling establishment in India, and begun censoring Indian films, both in India and also globally. Netflix has recently been chopping off names, lines, sequences and more from Indian films – anything it thinks the government might find objectionable.
When Netflix had first entered the lucrative Indian market, it had been very particular about its “no censorship” rule. It had famously streamed movies like Quashik Mukherjee’s controversial ‘Gandu’ too without any cuts. For those who don’t know, the Indian film certification board had banned the explicit ‘Gandu’ from being released in Indian theatres. Over the years, Netflix had always made it a point to stream only the uncut versions of licenced Indian films on its platform, showing all that the Central Board for Film Certification (CBFC) had censored from those films.
But not any more, it seems. In recent times, Netflix has begun showing only the CBFC-censored versions of Indian films on its platform, with all the cuts intact. As per the report in The Hindu, Netflix has censored a lot of stuff from Indian films, even while streaming them abroad. A dialogue in Karthi’s recently released ‘Japan’, referring to “Adani – Ambani”, has been chopped off. Akshay Kumar’s scenes as Indian god Lord Shiva in OMG 2, censored by CBFC, have been kept out of the Netflix version too.
Vijay’s Leo too has been streaming on Netflix, both in India and abroad, in only its CBFC-censored version – this despite the fact that Leo’s uncut version was legitimately released in theatres in the UK and US.
While we know Prime Video India and Disney Plus Hotstar have long been practicing tight self-regulation on the content they release on their platforms, we didn’t expect Netflix to toe the line. Netflix has always been the outlier – the shining beacon of standing up for its right to expression.
But ever since Prime Video’s brush with the law over its political drama ‘Tandav’, every OTT platform in India has decided it’s just not worth it to create or release content in India that has even the slightest potential to stir up trouble.
In other words, OTT platforms have decided to “play it safe”, even if it means foregoing edgy compelling content and sticking to mundane, humdrum stuff. Even biggies like Disney Plus Hotstar, Netflix and Prime Video, have decided to not take any chances with the current belligerent attitude of both the government and the viewers.
As for Netflix’s change in tactic, it’s plus one for the death of OTT entertainment as we know it; and zero for the viewers’ right to consume content as they deem fit, no questions asked.
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