NEW DELHI: A day after the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) issued a notice to Netflix for alleged wrongful depiction of children in the web series Bombay Begums, the OTT platform submitted its response seeking more time to examine the matter and address the concerns
Priyank Kanoongo, the chairperson of the apex child rights body, said on Friday that a senior Netflix official met him and submitted a written explanation which is being examined.
“The series Bombay Begums has to be removed. There are no two ways about it. We have just given them time till Tuesday that Netflix can look into the matter,” he added. The Netflix official also requested for a meeting with the panel which will include their content team. The request was accepted and the meeting is scheduled for 11.30 am on Tuesday, Kanoongo said.
Taking strong exception to a minor being shown as taking cocaine at a party in one of the episodes, the NCPCR’s two-page notice said that “from normalisation casual sex by minors, web series are now normalizing use of drugs”. It sought a detailed action taken report within 24 hours, failing which it said that it will be constrained to initiate appropriate action under Section 14 of the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights Act, 2005.
Filmmakers, however, questioned if the NCPRC notice was another assault on creative freedom. “Do these people spend all their time watching OTT shows or do they actually work for child rights?” filmmaker Hansal Mehta tweeted. Commenting on his post, filmmaker Anubhav Sinha, in a sarcastic tweet, said, “They are doing their ‘job’. We are not doing ours. This too shall ‘not’ pass.”
Journalist-turned-filmmaker Pritish Nandy wondered if “creative freedom (is) under siege” while actor Sulagna Chatterjee asked people to not let “these bullies and honking-loudspeakers of ‘culture saviours’ silence our artistic integrity, please”.