Bollywood: Director Ali Abbas Zafar apologises following backlash over 'Tandav'

'Tandav' director Ali Abbas Zafar and the web streaming platform Amazon Prime Video have apologised unconditionally for unintentionally hurting religious sentiments, following calls of boycott of the series.

The series, starring Saif Ali Khan and Dimple Kapadia as political kingpins, sparked outrage for allegedly depicting Hindu deities in a bad light. The hashtag boycottTandav has been trending since its premiere on January 15.

"The web series Tandav is a work of fiction and any resemblance to acts and persons and events is purely coincidental. The cast and crew did not have any intention to 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," the director wrote in a note posted in a tweet. "The cast and crew of Tandav take cognizance of the concerns expressed by the people and unconditionally apologize if it has unintentionally hurt anybody’s sentiments."

On January 17, a First Information Report was lodged against director Zafar and writer Gaurav Solanki at Lucknow's Hazratganj police station late on. Earlier, the Information and Broadcasting Ministry had summoned Amazon Prime Video officials in India in connection with the controversy around the web series. Several Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders had also called the makers out.

Security was also beefed up at actor Khan's residence in Mumbai.