The Supreme Court has issued notice to the makers of the web series Mirzapur on a plea seeking a ban alleging it maligns the image of the district in eastern Uttar Pradesh. The top court's intervention in the matter adds to the troubles faced by several filmmakers over the portrayal of the state.
The show promotes porn, portrays women as sex toys and is against the values of society and Indian culture, the plea filed against the web series, states.
The plea has also sought pre-censorship of other web series before they are released and implementation of guidelines akin to ones that are there for movies.
On Sunday night, an FIR was filed against the makers of Mirzapur for "deliberate and malicious intention of outraging religion feelings". Journalist Arvind Chaturvedi, who filed the FIR, alleged that plot and dialogues hurt his religious sentiments and portray the eastern UP district in a wrong light. A UP police team on Wednesday left for Mumbai to probe the matter.
Mirzapur on reel shown as a city of goons, vagabond murderers and adulteress: Plea in SC
In his plea, Mirzapur resident Sujeet Kumar Singh claims the web series portrays its real-life namesake as a city of goons, vagabond murderers and adulteress and everybody living there is one of the three. The plea alleges that the web series gives the impression that the judiciary and the law enforcement there work at the behest of the goons.
Singh submits that in the show, it is as though women of the district are involved in sexual relations with men apart from their husbands. Referring to Rasika Duggal's character Bina, the plea submits that the lady is part of a very rich family–Bina is Pankaj Tripathi's character Kaleen Bhaiyaa, the superdon's wife—and is sexually involved with her father-in-law (played by Kulbhushan Kharbanda), servant (Nitin Joshi), husband and stepson (the character Munna Tripathi played by Divyanshu Sharma). The show portrays women as sex toys and this violates the Indecent Representation of Women (Prohibition) Act, 1986, the plea said.
Abusive and vulgar language is also used in the show. "Because the web series is full of nudity, harass, vulgarity and abusive language" like other web series and nobody can see this sitting with other family members.
The web series has already diminished the image of the city, a continuation of the series will continue to do so the plea said. Singh has sought a stay suggesting that residents of Mirzapur "feel shy and hesitant when anybody outside Mirzapur watch him with suspected eyes after seeing the series."(sic)
The series violates Supreme Court orders that block the publication or transmission of material that is obscene, sexually explicit and contains material depicting children in sexually explicit acts or conduct.
Mirzapur is the second show based in UP that has courted controversy. Several FIRs were filed against the filmmakers of the Saif Ali Khan-starrer Tandav—also available on Amazon's Prime Video—allegedly promoting enmity between different groups, injuring or defiling place of worship, public mischief, forgery, and provisions from the Information Technology Act.
