The Wire Staff 
New Delhi: Netflix has pulled the Tamil film Annapoorani after Hindutva activists and social media commentators claimed that scenes in the film hurt their sentiments.
The studio that produced the film, Zee5, issued an apology to the Vishwa Hindu Parishad.
Social media had been rife with Hindutva supporters, including those from the ruling Bharatiya Janata Party, expressing outrage at the fact that a dialogue in the film consists of a man telling a woman that Ram ate meat while he was in exile, in the Ramayan. As many noted that Ram is often represented as with a bow and arrow – indication that he hunted for meat – the commentators also highlighted other ‘offensive’ aspects like the fact that the ‘upper’ caste Hindu protagonist of the film cooks and eats meat and also has a Muslim friend.
The film stars popular actor Nayanthara in the title role, alongside Jai and Sathyaraj.
“We have no intentions as co-producers of the Hindu and Brahmin communities and would hereby like to apologise for the inconvenience and hurt caused to the respective communities,” Zee5 said, according to news reports.
The News Minute has noted in its report that the film had already had a theatrical release in Tamil Nadu in December last year, meaning that it had already been cleared by the Central Board of Film Certification.
On January 8, the founder of an organisation calling itself the ‘Hindu IT Cell’, lodged a complaint in Mumbai, on the basis of which an FIR was filed against Nayanthara, Jai, and several officials and makers behind the film.
Last November, The Washington Post in an investigation of behind-the-scenes goings on at India commissioning decisions of big streaming giants from the US, Amazon’s Prime Video and Netflix, concluded that “just as the BJP and its ideological allies have spread propaganda on WhatsApp to advance their Hindu-first agenda and deployed the state’s coercive muscle to squash dissent on Twitter, they have used the threat of criminal cases and coordinated mass public pressure to shape what Indian content gets produced by Netflix and Prime Video.”