ALT Balaji and ZEE5 have censored an episode of XXX Uncensored, a webseries that they co-produced, as a scene where a woman married to a soldier makes her lover wear her husband’s army uniform offended some viewers. Some viewers complained that the scene was disrespectful to the armed forces. The Hyderabad police dismissed a complaint by a Hyderabad MLA after the scene was removed, the Hindustan Times reported.
In a Zoom discussion, Balaji Telefilms Managing Director Ekta Kapoor lashed out at online abusers even as she offered an apology for the scene. “Content aside, I don’t have any qualms in putting out an apology to army’s wives. We have no problems with them. What irritated me the most was that the cyberbullying started simultaneously when we had already put a stop,” DNA quoted her as saying. Citing rape threats against her and her family, she remarked, “[These threats] mean sex is bad but rape is okay.” ALT Balaji said it did not have further comment to add. We have also reached out to ZEE5 for comment.
This is the second time this month a streaming service in India have given in to public backlash against its content. It is also ZEE5’s second time — the company suspended a Tamil show’s release last week after right wing protesters were offended by the show’s premise. A few days ago, right wing groups trended #CensorWebSeries on Twitter, demanding government intervention in content showed by streaming services.
Online content regulation coming?
I cover the digital content ecosystem and telecom for MediaNama.
