Gauahar Khan has responded to the Indian Supreme Court’s refusal to grant the makers and actors of the controversial Amazon Prime Video series Tandav protection from arrest. According to reports, the top court has denied relief to director Ali Abbas Zafar and others seeking quashing of FIRs against them for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of Hindus. The top court has also issued notices to Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and other states on their pleas.
As per details, the bench hearing the case said that the “right to freedom of speech is not absolute”.
“Your right to freedom of speech is not absolute. You cannot play the role of character that hurts the sentiments of a community,” said the bench.
When Mohammad Zeeshan Ayyub’s lawyer argued that he was just an actor under contract and that the views expressed by his character could not be attributed to him, Justice MR Shah said, “You accepted the contract after reading the script. You cannot hurt religious sentiments.”
Responding to the bench’s comment, a Twitter user said: “Excellent. Next people playing murderers on screen might be tried for the same. After all, they read the script.”
Gauahar retweeted the tweet along with three ‘face with monocle’ emojis.
Tandav has been accused of disrespecting Hindu deities, with several political leaders including Uttar Pradesh deputy chief minister Keshav Prasad Maurya demanding legal action against the team.
Read more – India’s Karni Sena announces INR 1 crore award to whoever cuts tongue of ‘Tandav’ makers
Following the backlash and outrage, Tandav creator Ali Abbas Zafar issued an “unconditional apology” on behalf of the team. Calling any resemblance to real-life persons and incidents coincidental, he wrote in a statement, “The cast and crew did not have any intention to offend the sentiments of any individual, caste, community, race, religion or religious beliefs or insult or outrage any institution, political party or person, living or dead. The cast and crew of Tandav take cognizance of the concerns expressed by the people and unconditionally apologize if it has unintentionally hurt anybody’s sentiments.”
Later, Ali issued another statement, in which he said that the makers decided to ‘implement changes’ to the web series after concerns were raised. At least two scenes were removed from the show.
Tandav is a nine-episode series that takes viewers inside the corridors of power and politics. It was released on Amazon Prime Video on January 15.
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