In a significant first, Amazon Prime Video agreed to censor its political drama series Tandav, and has removed two scenes in the first episode. MediaNama confirmed that the scenes were removed from the show. Tandav attracted complaints from politicians and the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting got involved. We have reached out to Amazon and the Ministry for comment. What offended people Right wing groups and former Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati flagged two scenes, both in the first episode, as offensive: the first was a stage play where Shiva and Narada muse over what they can do to improve the deity's social media reach ("Should I put up a new photo," Shiva asks at one point.) The other was a scene where Devki Nandan Singh, the prime minister, castigates a Dalit politician after the latter asks to get his two cents in on an issue. The fallout The pushback to the show was likely far from organic, being egged on by the usual conservative ecosystem that trended #CensorWebSeries and protested a single shot in A Suitable Boy featuring a kiss with a temple in the background. Leaders like Kapil Mishra and Ram Kadam voiced their disapproval of the show. But the ranks of people claiming to be outraged by the show increased like rarely seen before for a web series. More FIRs were reported after the first one in Lucknow, this time in Gautam Buddha Nagar and Shahjahanpur in Uttar Pradesh, in Jabalpur and Gwalior in Madhya Pradesh, and…
