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 The U.S. streaming platforms
have faced complaints from lawmakers belonging
to Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Hindu
nationlist party and others that some of the
shows promote obscenity or offend religious
beliefs.
"We are of the view there should be some
screening of these types (of content). What they
are showing? They are showing pornography also,"
Supreme Court Justice Ashok Bhushan said.
Traditional film viewing in India, home to the
thriving Bollywood industry, has changed as
fewer people go to cinema halls and web series
have become common, Bhushan said.
The remarks came as the Supreme Court heard a
plea from Amazon's head of India content for
Prime Video, Aparna Purohit, for protection
against arrest in a case involving a
controversial political drama "Tandav", a Hindi
word for "fury".
Tandav stars top Bollywood actors but has been
battling police and court cases which allege the
show depicted Hindu gods in a derogatory manner
and offended religious beliefs.
The court will continue to hear the case on
Friday. Bhushan has asked the government and the
platform to submit details of any regulations
that currently govern online video platforms.
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 Content on these platforms is
not subject to vetting. But the government has
ordered that the platforms classify content into
five categories based on the age groups it would
be appropriate for.
Purohit's counsel told the Supreme Court her
case was one concerning freedom of expression.
Last week, the executive was questioned for
nearly four hours by police in Uttar Pradesh in
a separate case filed against the show.
Purohit approached the apex court after a state
court rejected her request for anticipatory
bail, saying the Tandav series hurt religious
sentiment and she must cooperate with police.
Amazon this week issued a rare public apology
for "Tandav", saying some scenes that were found
objectionable had been edited or removed.
In January 2020, Amazon founder Jeff Bezos said
Prime Video was doing well globally "but nowhere
is it doing better than India".
(Reporting by Shilpa Jamkhandikar, Aditya Kalra
and Abhirup Roy; Editing by Raju Gopalakrishnan)
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