National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has asked Netflix to stop streaming Bombay Begums, which was released on the occasion of International Women's Day, March 08, citing what it calls the "inappropriate portrayal" of children in the web series.
Bombay Begums, a Netflix web series, was released earlier this week on International Women's Day, March 08. Written by Alankrita Shrivastava, of Lipstick Under My Burkha fame, this web series rated 18+ -- Bombay Begums shows the dreams and desires of five women living in Mumbai from various strata of society.
The show features Pooja Bhatt, Shahana Goswami, Amruta Subhash, Plabita Borthakur and Aadhya Anand.
Why is Bombay Begums in trouble?
The National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) has asked Netflix to stop streaming Bombay Begums. A few scenes related to the youngest cast, Aadhya Anand (13), caught the netizens' attention, which further led to NCPCR's radar.
The Chairperson of NCPCR said, "We have sought stopping the streaming of Bombay Begums over the inappropriate portrayal of children in the series." The Commission is taking action based on complaints that the series normalises casual sex and drug abuse among teenagers. According to them, it might "pollute young minds".
This is pure bullsh*t. The makers’ mind is full of crap. pic.twitter.com/fCDVjjNenk
— Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri)
Well, NCPCR has given the OTT platform 24 hours to take down the series. When Asianet Newsable tried to contact the filmmaker and the cast members, we were denied.
What scenes is NCPCR talking about?
In the first scene, Shai, played by 13-year-old Aadhya Anand, is seen at a party drinking alcohol and taking drugs as she is heartbroken after being rejected by a boy she loves in her class. In the show, Shai was seen facing low self-esteem and body issues.
From normalisation of minors indulging in casual sex we now have web series showing minors having Cocaine.
Screengrab from where a 13yr old is snorting coke as the party she goes to is all about alcohol, drugs.
Sink it in. pic.twitter.com/RXOyq1GaJS
The other scene people pointed out is that of Shai's classmates taking pictures of their developed body parts and sending them to their male peer, Imran, which in turn makes Shai’s insecure because of her underdeveloped body.
Dream of school girls is to send selfies with a 'developed' body part to Imran.
Bombay Begums streaming on
Director Alankrita Srivastava.pic.twitter.com/LCtBY3ztIg
Meanwhile, coming back to tightening the grip on OTT content, the Indian government is mulling over it after the big fiasco over shows like Saif Ali Khan's Tandav and Pankaj Tripathi's Mirzapur 2 hurting religious sentiments of a section of people.
Now, we have to wait and watch to know what happens to the fate of Bombay Begums.