New Delhi: Following a second meeting with the officials of the ministry of information and broadcasting on Tuesday, makers of the political web series Tandav said the crew has decided to “implement changes to the web series to address the concerns raised”.

The announcement of the cuts follows an unconditional apology and detailed explanation the content creators had issued on Monday. In a fresh statement on behalf of Team Tandav less than 24 hours later, director Ali Abbas Zafar said, “We have the utmost respect for the sentiments of the people. We did not intend to hurt or 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.”

His statement added, “The cast and crew of Tandav have decided to implement changes to address the concerns raised towards the same. We thank the I&B ministry for guidance and support in the matter. We once again apologise if the series has unintentionally hurt anybody’s sentiments.”

With ministry officials engaging with Amazon Prime Video, the platform streaming the series, and the content creators, to “resolve concerns” for a second day, the team eventually agreed to weed out the controversial content. The series had invited criticism over allegations that it “insulted Hindu gods and goddesses”.

Bhopal: MP home minister Narottam Mishra on Tuesday said that a case will be registered against the producer, director and actors of the web series ‘Tandav’ for hurting the religious sentiments of Hindus and using derogatory language against some individuals. When reporters asked if the web series could be banned in MP, he said, “Certainly, that will also be considered.”

Mishra said the MP government would urge the Centre to come out with a policy on web programmes. “Web series that hurt religious feelings and use indecent words with the intention of insulting someone or a group of people must be banned across the country,” he said. “Why is it that only Hindu religion and religious sentiments of Hindus are targeted in films,” he asked. Naming Saif Ali Khan, Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub and Ali Abbas Zafar, who are involved in ‘Tandav’, he said, “I condemn the way they have commented on Hindu religion and hurt sentiments of Hindus in the web series.” 

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An FIR was lodged on Monday against the makers and artistes of “Tandav” at Rabupura police station in Greater Noida, the third such case in UP. Earlier, FIRs had been filed in Lucknow and Shahjahanpur. The complaint was filed by Rabupura resident Balbir Azad, who was earlier associated with the BSP. It said the series adversely impacted the image of UP police and portrayed Hindu deities in an indecent manner. Similarly, a case against the director and writer of ‘Tandav’ was registered at Omti police station in Jabalpur on Tuesday.