NEW DELHI: After protests from several parts of the country the tandav on the web series by Amazon Prime Video, 'Tandav' continued to progress further with a FIR being filed against the OTT platform, some actors and the makers of the series in Lucknow.

The FIR lodged at Hazratganj police station today under various sections of the IPC and the IT Act named Aparna Purohit, head of Amazon's India Original Content, producer of the series Himanshu Krishna Mehra, director Ali Abbas Zafar and Gaurav Solanki the writer.

The FIR has been technically registered on the complaint of a sub-inspector of the Hazratganj police, Amarnath Yadav, who said after he investigated and saw the series following which he filed the FIR under various sections of IPC and other acts including inciting and hurting religious sentiments and promoting enmity between groups.

He said that in the 17th minute of the first episode, characters dressed in an improper way and representing Hindu gods and goddesses were shown speaking in undignified and 'low-level' language. 

The 9 episodes series Tandav which was released on January 16 has a big star cast with actor Saif Ali Khan playing one of the lead roles and include Dimple Kapadia, Sunil Grover, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Dino Morea, Gauhar Khan and others. The story revolves around political leader Samar Pratap played by Khan, who wants to replaces his father and the three-time incumbent Devki Nandan played by Tigmanshu Dhulia as the Prime Minister. There is another parallel track in the story which follows campus activist Shiva played by Zeeshan Ayub.

Almost immediately after it was released on the OTT platform, several leaders of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) came out in protest against the series and demanded an immediate ban on its telecast accusing its makers and actors of hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus and describing it as anti-Dalit. BJP MP from Mumbai North, Manoj Kotak, shot off a letter to Prakash Javadekar Minister of Information & Broadcasting condemning the series and demanding a censor for all OTT platforms. 

Another BJP leader from Mumbai MLA Ram Kadam Sunday lodged a complaint against the makers Ghatkopar police station in Mumbai on Sunday and he followed it up on Monday by meeting senior personnel from Amazon Prime at their BKC office, demanding immediate withdrawal of the series. Kadam said he has also written to the Javadekar asking him to act urgently on the series. 

Meanwhile, a case has also been registered against the producers of web series ‘Mirzapur’ and Amazon Prime for hurting religious sentiments and social beliefs in the Mirzapur district of eastern UP. The series was first released in November 2018 and continued till October 2020. 

In December 2020, the government brought OTT platforms such as Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and online news and current affairs content, under the ambit of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, which can now regulate the sector and frame rules to govern them.