Bollywood gripped by fear amid creeping religious censorship on films

Content creators who sell the big dream to millions are torn between fright at recent developments and wistful optimism, as Rituparna Chatterjee reports

Supporters of India’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) pour ink and beat a poster with footwear at a protest against the new web series ‘Tandav’ in Mumbai (Getty)

There’s palpable unease among the actors and artistes of Bollywood, one of the world’s largest film industries, as recent examples of religious censorship have forced filmmakers to apologise for their content or face reprisals that can range from online boycott calls to police action.

This week Amazon’s Prime Video streaming service had to issue an unconditional apology for scenes in the fictional drama seriesTandav that offended Hindus. The word Tandav translates as the dance of fury — a cosmic dance associated with deities, especially the Hindu god Shiva, who is also called Nataraja or the lord of dance.

The retail giant, with its $6.5bn investment in the country and an audience of 600 million that founder Jeff Bezos has hailed as one of its fastest growing markets, put out a statement saying it was “never their intention” to offend audiences in India.