BJP MLA Nandkishor Gurjar wants Indian cricketer Virat Kohli to divorce his wife Anushka Sharma following a backlash on web series Pataal Lok.
The furor of BJP leaders against Anushka Sharma is a reaction to a web series Pataal Lok on Amazon Prime Video. The Bollywood actress has co-produced the series, Pataal Lok. BJP MLA Nandkishor Gujar has accused the series of inciting communal disharmony. He says the series has hurt the sentiments of the Nepali community. But since his picture was shown in a scene he says the series has put him in a bad light. Moreover, he protested to use his picture in the series without his consent.
A BJP MLA advices Virat Kohli to divorce Anushka Sharma for producing Pataal lok. And we thought, we have seen everything 🙄 https://t.co/WXE0Dilmee
— Whatizname (@nazmaaman) May 26, 2020
To him, Pataal Lok showed castes in Sanatan Dharam. It also portrayed a few Hindu communities in a negative light. However, Nandkishor also objected to the scene in which a Muslim man was lynched for eating beef.
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The MLA Nandkishor Gurjar wrote a letter to the Minister of Information and Broadcast and demanded the removal of the web series. Also, he complained Anushka Sharma under the National Security Act and accused her of inciting communal discord.
Hence, #BoycottPaatalLok and #CensorWebSeries trended on Indian Twitter against the alleged Hinduphobia in the series.
Gurjar said that while Virat Kohli is a patriot and plays for India, he should divorce Anushka Sharma.
Pataal Lok and problems for Anushka Sharma
Earlier, Viren Di Gurung- a member of the Lawyers Guild for a racist slur used in the series. He says the slur was derogatory towards the Nepali community.
“There is a clip wherein during an interrogation a lady police officer uses a casteist slur on a Nepali character. There wouldn’t have been any problem had only ‘Nepali’ been used. But the word that follows it is unacceptable. Since Anushka Sharma is one of the producers of the show, we have served her a notice,” he said.
Moreover, the organization of Gorkhas that objected to a seemingly sexual slur aiming at the community while also stereotyping the Nepali community.
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“Nepali is one of the 22 scheduled languages and there are 10.5 million people in India who speak Nepali as the common tongue. The Gorkha community is the largest Nepali speaking community and this is a direct insult to the community,” said the Bharatiya Gorkha Yuva Parisangh.
Complaints from the Sikh community
Manjinder Singh Arsa, former Akali Dal MLA and Delhi Sikh Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee president called for a ban on the series for maligning Sikhs. He referred to a scene of a Sikh man raping a woman while others watched him.
Finally someone raised their voice against this scene of #PatalLok 🙏🏻Stop Defaming Jatts !
This is not acceptable by sikhs around the world pls delete this scene asap @PrimeVideoIN @AnushkaSharma @mssirsa #pataallok #PaatalLokKeLog #PaatalLokReview #Patal_Lok pic.twitter.com/T17ZP4wGxK— Mandeep Singh GGS (@mandeepggs) May 22, 2020
He tweeted that, “Sikhs are Saviours of women. The whole world recognizes Sikhs for their Sewa and Humanity but shame on @AnushkaSharma @PrimeVideoIN for showing Sikhs as Rapists”.
What is Pataal Lok?
Despite criticism from a cross-section of the society, the Pataal Lok is a huge success and received rave reviews from the viewers. It is an Indian Hindi-language crime thriller web television series which premiered on Amazon Prime Video on 15 May 2020. Clean Slate Films has produced the series. It stars Jaideep Ahlawat, Gul Panag, Neeraj Kabi, Swastika Mukherjee, Ishwak Singh, and Abhishek Banerjee.
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The teaser of Pataal Lok hit the screens on 27 April. The final trailer came out on 5 May. Loosely based on Tarun Tejpal’s 2010 novel The Story of My Assassins, the series is about a disillusioned cop who lands the case of an assassination attempt gone wrong.
pataal lok is definitely not the best thriller show from India, as some people said. However, it's definitely one of the few good ones. a bit bollywood for me in the way it ended.
— tanvi is tired🏳️🌈 (@YaTanvi) May 19, 2020
Paatal Lok is a police-based investigative thriller. The series in chimed with traditional concepts of Svarga, Dharti, and Paatal (heaven, earth, and the hell), as metaphors for the different classes of India and the four estates. Sudip Sharma began writing Paatal Lok at the beginning of 2017.
Production of Pataal Lok
For Sharma, it was his maiden attempt at writing in the long-form. The writing team also consisted of Hardik Mehta, Gunjit Chopra, Sagar Haveli- the beginners in writing a series. Sharma wrote the first and last three episodes. While other writes wrote the remaining five episodes. All the writers did field research visiting places in Delhi and Uttar Pradesh in 2017. The show has two directors, Prosit Roy and Avinash Arun Dhaware, both directing different portions of the series. The producers have shot the series in 110 cities in India.
A celebrity TV anchor is the target of a group of killers. Why do they want to kill him? Who is behind it all. A cynical, seen-it-all, from the wrong-side-of-the-tracks cop, takes the case. As he starts the investigation, he comes across startling connections between the most unlikely people in the most unlikely places.