'Take their heads off': Kangana defends violent tweet as 'Tandav' creators issue apology

A local official from India’s ruling Hindu nationalist party on Sunday registered a police complaint against an Amazon Prime web series alleging it insults Hindu gods and goddesses and threatened to launch a protest at the company’s office in Mumbai. The political drama Tandav also drew the ire of other lawmakers from the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), causing fresh controversy for the e-commerce giant which last year had to withdraw dozens of rugs and doormats depicting Hindu gods from its international Amazon.com platform after a backlash in India.

BJP Member of Parliament Manoj Kotak, in a letter to India’s Information and Broadcasting Minister Prakash Javadekar dated Saturday, said that the makers of Tandav “have deliberately mocked Hindu gods and disrespected Hindu religious sentiments”.

Among right-wing Hindu leaders, actor Kangana Ranaut demanded strict actions against the makers of the show. The actor stirred up a storm with her now-deleted tweet about the Amazon Prime Video series. Replying to a tweet about how people have ‘stopped taking insults lying down’ and made the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting seek an explanation from the makers, the actor wrote on Monday, “Because even Lord Krishna forgave 99 mistakes of Sheshupala.... pehle Shanti phir Kranti (Silence must be followed by revolution).... time to take their heads off,” However, she deleted it shortly after.

Ranaut's tweet was perceived as an instigation of violence towards the team of Tandav. However, some of her fans defended her. One such person shared a screenshot from Google which said that ‘take the head off’ is an idiom that means ‘to scold or berate someone severely’.

The Simran actor retweeted the tweet and wrote, “The liberals who are scared and crying to their mothers must read this. I did not ask for you to be beheaded. Even I know that insects and worms need pesticide.”

Soon after, the creator of the web series, Ali Abbas Zafar issued a statement over the ongoing controversy and apologised for hurting religious sentiments. 

"Our sincere apologies," Zafar wrote in a social media post on Monday. "We have been closely monitoring viewer reactions to the web series Tandav and today during a discussion, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has informed us regarding a large number of grievances and petitions received on various facets of the web series with serious concerns and apprehensions regarding its content hurting the sentiments of the people," the statement read.

"The web series Tandav is a work of fiction and any resemblance to acts and persons and events is purely coincidental. The cast and crew did not have any intention to offend the sentiments of any individual, caste, community, race, religion or religious beliefs or insult or outrage any institution, political party or person, living or dead. The cast and crew of Tandav take cognisance of the concerns expressed by the people and unconditionally apologise if it has unintentionally hurt anybody’s sentiments."

India late last year brought streaming platforms under the oversight of the Information and Broadcasting Ministry and said it plans to regulate their content. Reuters partner ANI reported on Sunday that the ministry had summoned Amazon Prime Video officials in connection with the controversy.

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