[This year, the government announced rules that subject online news outlets and video content providers to extensive regulation. Under the new rules, “publishers” are required to appoint a local representative to act on every complaint within 15 days. These companies are also required to join an industry association led by a retired judge to ensure compliance. The third level of regulation falls to a government committee that has the power to censure, demand an apology or order the deletion of content.]
By Niha Masih
Instead, it nearly landed its
creators in jail.
Within days of the release of the series
in January, the streaming platform had become a target of Hindu nationalists
angered by a brief scene depicting a Hindu god and remarks referencing India’s
hierarchical caste system. At least 10 police complaints were filed against the
makers, actors and Amazon executives in more than half a dozen states across
the country. The makers of the drama, called “Tandav,” apologized and deleted the contentious scenes.
But India’s
top court refused to dismiss the police cases.
U.S. video streaming platforms like
Netflix and Amazon Prime Video are looking to the Indian market to power their
global growth. But their shows are facing the wrath of Hindu nationalists,
often linked to the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party or BJP, which wields
increasing clout over what is acceptable entertainment. Now, the government has
stepped in, raising fears about shrinking space for creative freedom.
In November, the government brought
streaming platforms under the purview of the information and broadcasting
ministry, which has licensing and content censorship powers in mediums like
cinema and television.
This year, the government announced rules that subject online news outlets and
video content providers to extensive regulation. Under the new rules,
“publishers” are required to appoint a local representative to act on every
complaint within 15 days. These companies are also required to join an industry
association led by a retired judge to ensure compliance. The third level of
regulation falls to a government committee that has the power to censure,
demand an apology or order the deletion of content.
[In
India, a climate activist’s arrest shows shrinking space for dissent]
Experts say the Web platforms may
find it hard to push back against government regulations given what’s at stake.
India is the fastest-growing
market for video streaming platforms, according to an estimate by PricewaterhouseCoopers.
It forecast India’s growth in the category to be over 28 percent by 2024,
double the projected global growth.
Netflix has invested $400 million
in the past two years to produce or license content in India. In 2018, Netflix
CEO Reed Hastings said the company’s next
100 million users would come from India.
For Amazon, too, India is a key
market. During his visit to the country last year, founder and CEO Jeff Bezos
said the company would “double
down” on its investment in India, citing its growing popularity.
(Bezos owns The Washington Post.)
The new rules also include
stringent provisions for social media giants such as Facebook and WhatsApp,
requiring them to take down content deemed inappropriate in a short period of
time and comply with court or government orders to identify creators.
While experts called the rules “unconstitutional,” the government has said they are “progressive,
liberal and contemporaneous.”
India is not the only country where
streaming sites have to contend with local restrictions. Last year, Netflix
canceled a show in Turkey after the government refused to give
permission to film the series over the inclusion of a gay character. In Saudi
Arabia, the
company pulled an episode of “Patriot Act” by comedian Hasan Minhaj
that criticized Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman.
Under Prime Minister Narendra Modi,
a wave of Hindu nationalism has exacerbated religious tensions, jeopardizing
India’s democratic status. This week, a report on global democracy downgraded
the world’s largest democracy to an “electoral autocracy,” primarily
due to a sharp decline in freedom of expression, the media, and civil society.
In January, a Muslim stand-up comic
had to spend
a month in jail following a complaint by the son of a BJP leader for a
joke he did not make. Lower courts repeatedly denied him bail for “outraging
religious feelings” under the “garb of standup comedy.” Later, the
Supreme Court granted him bail.
Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and
similar platforms are often credited with pushing the envelope on delicate
subjects such as female sexuality or social justice. “Delhi
Crime,” a fictionalized retelling of a brutal gang rape on Netflix, won an
Emmy for Best Drama Series in 2020 — the first for an Indian show.
But the pushback is growing.
Besides “Tandav,” the makers of “Mirzapur,” a crime thriller set in the eponymous
small town in Uttar Pradesh, also on Amazon Prime Video, are also battling
police complaints for “hurting religious sentiments.” Earlier, the member of
Parliament from Mirzapur, an ally of the BJP, urged Modi to take action against
the show for depicting the town as a den of violence.
Police from Uttar Pradesh, run by a
hard-line Hindu monk from the BJP, traveled to Mumbai to investigate the case
against Tandav and have questioned Amazon’s head of India Originals, Aparna
Purohit. Rejecting her pre-arrest bail plea, a judge from a lower court
said “sentiments
of the majority community have been hurt” by the show.
This month, Amazon Prime Video
stepped in with a fresh apology for the controversial scenes in “Tandav.” The
statement said they respect the “diverse beliefs” of its viewers and “apologize
unconditionally” to those who felt hurt.
On Thursday, the national agency in
overseeing children’s rights asked Netflix to stop streaming its just-released show “Bombay Begums”
over what it described as an “inappropriate” portrayal of children.
Representatives from the two
companies declined to respond to questions about the impact of the new
guidelines on their content and the ongoing police cases.
India’s Internet boom is driven by
the easy availability of cheap Internet data plans and the proliferation of
smartphones. There are more than 570 million
Internet users in India, with recent growth happening among rural
populations.
[It
was never easy being an interfaith couple in India. Now some states are making
it harder.]
“Every large platform is looking at
India to give them the next phase of growth,” said Rajib Basu, the head of
media and entertainment sector for PricewaterhouseCoopers in India. “It’s an
English-speaking market and the biggest after China, which is not free. Nobody
can ignore it.”
The new rules have created “panic,”
said Karan Anshuman, one of the writers and directors of “Mirzapur,” the show
targeted in police complaints.
Days after the rules were
announced, Mint newspaper reported that Amazon Prime Video had shelved the second season of
“Paatal Lok,” a sobering drama that had received praise for its
unembellished depiction of discrimination and corruption.
Anshuman said that the signs were
not encouraging for the creative industry.
“It’s too early to say how things
are going to play out,” he said. But “we’re already doubting our own selves
over whether something is too political.”
