Tandav Row: Supreme Court declines request for protection from arrest to the makers

On Wednesday, the Supreme Court had rejected the interim protection from arrest to Ali Abbas Zafar, director-producer of Tandav, and others. The team had approached the apex court seeking a stay on FIRs filed against them in different cities for allegedly hurting religious sentiments of Hindus. A bench comprising justices Ashok Bhushan, R Subhash Reddy and MR Shah was hearing three separate petitions of Ali Abbas Zafar, Amazon Prime India head Aparna Purohit, producer Himanshu Mehra, writer Gaurav Solanki and actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub.

As per Live Law, the bench said, “We cannot use the power under Section 482 CrPC. We are not inclined to grant interim protection.”

As per a report in PTI, the bench said, “Your right to freedom of speech is not absolute. You cannot play the role of character that hurts the sentiments of a community.” The bench has also sought responses from states such as UP, MP, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Bihar and Delhi on the pleas.

After the controversy, the team also issued an apology and released a statement stating that they will make the necessary changes in the web series. Tandav is a political drama that released on Amazon Prime Video on January 15.

It faced a lot of backlash on social media from a section of audience and political leaders. The team of Tandav also had a dialogue with the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting over the complaints that have been filed against the web series. Even after the apology by the team, problems didn’t become less for the team.

Tandav stars Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, Sunil Grover, Kumud Mishra, Gauahar Khan and others in pivotal roles.

Also Read: Tandav’s cast and crew finally decides to ‘implement changes’ to the web series