Mumbai: Past few weeks, the Twitterati have been completely swamped with expressing concern over various incidents. Besides being the force behind a jewellery brand taking down two of its adverts and trolling Amitabh Bachchan for a question on a TV quiz show that allegedly hurt 'Hindu sentiments', Tweeple now have their hands full with boycott campaign against Netflix.
Acclaimed filmmaker Mira Nair's A Suitable Boy which talks of an India that was has received mixed reviews. The six-episode series is stories of love woven into the socio-political fabric of India of the '50s has already been launched on BBC One in the UK. For Indian viewers, it released on Netflix on October 23 and is now getting major flak on social media.
A still from Mira Nair's A Suitable Boy The outrage on social networking sites was over scenes in the series in which the characters played by Tanya Maniktala and Danesh Razvi are seen kissing in a temple. While the former’s Lata Mehra is a Hindu, the latter’s character was a Muslim named Kabir Durrani. While netizens have reacted strongly to the #BoycottNetflix trend, Madhya Pradesh Home Minister Narrotam Mishra, BJP leader Gaurav Goel and actor-TV personality Rahul Mahajan were among the known names who expressed their displeasure over the scenes.
Netflix, the American OTT (over-the-top) platform, however, is yet to respond to the claims of hurting sentiments or the cacophony against them on Twitter seems to have fallen on deaf ears as A Suitable Boy is not the first and surely won't be the last for which the platform would run into a controversy.
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From Wild Wild Country to Cuties, there have been various shows and movies that have put Netflix in a spot across the globe.
Earlier, Sacred Games, one of the first Indian original web series garnered criticism for it had all that many believed that neither the Indian Censors Board would allow or was suited to be seen at home. Nudity, violence and politics depicted in the show landed Netflix in political controversy followed by the court case.
Saif Ali Khan in a still from Sacred Games Season 2 of the Sacred Games too courted controversies when Delhi spokesperson for the BJP, Tajinder Singh Bagga, had filed a police complaint against filmmaker Anurag Kashyap for "intentionally hurting Sikh sentiments" in the show.
In 2019, Netflix had come under criticism for 'defaming Hindus' when Ramesh Solanki, member of the Shiv Sena’s IT cell filed a police complaint against the OTT giant. His complaint alleged that shows like Sacred Games, Leila, Ghoul and the comedy talk show Patriot Act hosted by Hasan Minhaj "attempt to paint Hindus and India in a bad light."
Janhvi Kapoor in a still from Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl Janhvi Kapoor starrer Gunjan Saxena: The Kargil Girl that released on August 12 this year attracted severe backlash due to negative portrayal of the Indian Armed Forces (IAF). The film features a few sequences which show its protagonist facing gender bias during her time at the academy. The IAF had a lot of issues with the way facts have been presented in the film, which they feel were grossly twisted.
A still from Delhi Crimes Delhi Crime followed the story of the Nirbhaya rape case of 2012. Headlined by Shefali Shah and Rasika Dugal, the show landed in a legal soup when the SHO of Vasant Vihar claimed that a character based on him in the show was shown in poor light. The show was heavily criticised for giving a clean chit to the police department that was apparently caught napping on that dreadful night.
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It is not that only the Indian audience has raised their voice against Netflix content. The OTT service witnessed 'Cancel Netflix' trend in the US post allegations of "sexualizing" an 11-year-old for the "viewing pleasure of paedophiles" in Cuties. The OTT platform had to apologise for the material it used to promote the controversial French film after thousands of people signed a petition demanding the removal of Cuties from the streaming platform.
A still from The First Temptation of Christ Similarly, when The First Temptation of Christ released in December 2019, around two million people signed a petition to ban the Brazilian movie which showed Jesus as gay and Mary as a weed-smoker. In India, too, a section of the Christian community had said the show should be pulled down immediately from Netflix domains all over the globe and demanded an unconditional apology from the streaming giant.
Collage of stills from 365 Days, Bird Box and 13 Reasons Why Movies and shows like 365 Days, Bird Box, 13 Reasons Why, Cooking on High, Messiah, The Goop Lab, Atypical, The Devil Next Door, Insatiable and Jinn are the other productions that have got Netlfix in trouble in various countries.
Since Netflix is not yet available in China, the video-on-demand platform is eying for the world’s second-most populous country, India. The platform aims to garner 100 million customers in the country. In India, Netflix is popular, but certainly not the most subscribed platform. Ted Sarandos, Chief Content Officer of the OTT platform in a throwback interview had said that "Growth in that country (India) is a marathon. We’re in it for the long haul."
Trade experts, however, opine that the frequent boycott threats and negativity around the brand could apparently make their dream to rule the second-most populous market a distant reality.
