In the past couple of years, multiple cases have been filed in various Indian courts by digital viewers in India, and against a multitude of web shows and streaming platforms. Every case has one base – hurting the religious sentiments of people of one particular religion. It all began with Sacred Games, its supposed lampooning of the late PM Rajiv Gandhi, and its depiction of a Hindu religious guru as the perpetrator of evil. Then came Ghoul and Leila, and both based their depiction of a totalitarian state and its primary evil-doers as something akin to the present Central government. All three shows were on Netflix.
Soon, in an avalanche of similar shows — as if the floodgates had opened up — a slew of shows followed on OTT, all depicting Hindu religion as regressive, manipulative, divisive, hostile, alienating, and what not. Paatal Lok on Amazon Prime Video, Aashram on MX Player, the forcefully cancelled Godman on ZEE5 Telugu, Netflix Original film Ludo, and several others – all allegedly depicted Hindu religion, its godmen, and even its Gods in a bad light. Or so said a section of the audience. And this section of the audience was not going to sit quietly. They demanded bans of the culprit shows, arrests of their makers and even a strict Government eye on OTT content.
All of the above has resulted in but one thing – the Indian web entertainment scene has never been as fragmented or ruffled as it has been in the past couple of years. Our homegrown OTT space has been hit by one controversy after another. The latest Amazon Prime Video show Tandav has been in the eye of a controversy of the very limits. Viewers have been trending hashtags such as ‘uninstall Amazon’, ‘Ban Tandav Now‘, and so on.
So, what is the reason for all of this hullabaloo? Have we as viewers lost the ability to distinguish between a piece of fiction and fact? Have we become so touchy that if a character is shown indulging in drugs and sex, and his name is Devkinandan (a moniker of Lord Krishna, a character in Tandav), we will begin demanding a ban on the show itself? We must remember that that Raghu, Devkinandan and Shiva are common names in our country. Anyone can sport the name, and indulge in vices at the same time.
For example, Kajol’s character in Gupt is named Isha and commits multiple murders. Isha is another name for both Shiva and Durga. But we don’t remember any hue and cry over her character name then, do we? And who can forget the terrifying villain Gokul Pandit of Dushman, played convincingly by Ashutosh Rana. The name is a dead giveaway to its origin in Hinduism and connect to Lord Krishna. Did anyone demand bans on Dushman back in the nineties? There are thousands of similar villains in Bollywood’s history, named after Hindu gods and goddesses. So, if it didn’t make a difference back in the 20th century, what has changed now – in a much advanced time and age – to enrage people so much?
We don’t bat an eyelid when a middle-aged mother of three is gang-raped in a temple in UP. But one chaste kiss shared between the protagonists within the confines of a temple is enough to get demands of a ban on A Suitable Boy. How about taking up cudgels for real-life causes, instead of getting our sensibilities in a twist over reel-life non-issues? Temples have been clandestine meeting places for young people since times immemorial, for want of better and safe meeting-up places in olden times. Even today, lots of match-making too takes place in our country in temples — so, what’s the issue?
Yes, Aashram, Godman and Sacred Games have depicted Hindu religious leaders as sex-pests and manipulators. But it’s not as if the writers have conjured up these people out of their imaginations. Who can forget sex offenders such as Asaram Bapu, Gurmeet Ram Rahim, Guru Nityanand, etc, who’ve committed those very acts in real life? Anyone with a passing knowledge of such events will know that the gurus of the shows have been modelled on their real-life counterparts. How about revolting against these self-styled godmen who exploit young women in the name of religion, instead of taking umbrage against shows that are merely holding up a mirror to society. We don’t remember anyone protesting against Savdhan India and other such shows that have depicted similar manipulative godmen.
Does this mean we have gotten increasingly touchy these days? Are we overreacting to small issues that are mere specks in our timeline? We certainly think so. A more tolerant, less overreacting audience is the need of the hour.
Now, enough about touchy viewers. Let’s look at whether the content creators of web shows are at fault or not. Well, they are very certainly guilty, and quite intensely too. Freedom works both ways. But Hinduism seems to have become a sitting duck for OTT content creators – maybe because of the peace-loving, tolerant outlook ingrained in its psyche. Why is only one religion depicted in a bad light in these shows? Are people of other religions saints? Why don’t OTT content creators ever focus on the sex scandals that have rocked churches and madrassas in recent times? Or depict sex pests based on real-life offenders that were Church pastors or madrassa teachers? Why isn’t any depraved character shown to be of a religion other than Hindu in OTT shows? Don’t they have depraved people in Christianity or Islam or Sikhism or the other religions we have in our country?
So yes, we do believe that our content creators too have a role to play in the state of things in digital entertainment today. Web show creators have become increasingly crasser, and Hinduism seems to have become the favourite whipping boy of every content creator out there.
A healthy balance in carving out compelling stories will shut protests and protestors better than anything else. Indians, and more specifically, people of one religion are smarting with unjust depictions of their religion. A Muslim is not always noble; a Sikh is not always valorous; and a Hindu is not always evil. Content creators have the power to forge new narratives and sow whatever seeds they want in the sensibilities of their viewers. That is the power of digital entertainment. It is in their hands if they want to use that power to divide their audiences or unite them.
We rest our case.
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