The Bombay High Court on Wednesday, 20 January, granted three weeks' transit anticipatory bail to Tandav director Ali Abbas Zafar and three others in an FIR registered in Uttar Pradesh to enable him to approach the appropriate court for regular pre-arrest bail, news agency ANI reported his lawyer Aniket Ujjwal Nikam as saying.
The Amazon Prime Video web series, which stars Saif Ali Khan, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub and Dimple Kapadia, has been in hot water over allegations by BJP leaders that the show has offended religious sentiments. An FIR was filed in Lucknow's Hazratganj Kotwali against the makers of Tandav on Monday, 18 January. Among those named in the FIR are Amazon Prime's India head of original content Aparna Purohit, Ali Abbas Zafar, the show's producer Himanshu Krishna Mehra and writer Gaurav Solanki.
The charges include promoting enmity between different religious groups, race, place of birth, making destruction, damage, or defilement of a place of worship or an object held sacred. They further entail forgery for purpose of harming reputation, statements that could bring public mischief, intent to threaten the unity, integrity, security or sovereignty of India, and strike terror section of the people, reported Economic Times.
Ali Abbas Zafar issued a statement of apology on 18 January, following a meeting with the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting, which sought an explanation from Amazon Prime Video after taking cognisance of the complaints the series has received. A day later he announced that changes would be made to the show to "to address the concerns" over allegations that it has hurt religious sentiments. Zafar maintained that the cast and crew "apologise if the series has unintentionally hurt anybody's sentiments."
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