A complaint was filed against director Anurag Kashyap’s Netflix anthology Ghost Stories for a scene in which actress Sobhita Dhulipala’s character could be seen consuming a foetus after suffering a miscarriage.
The complaint was filed under the Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021. It said the scene was superfluous and there was no need to incorporate it in the short film. The complaint also said that a trigger warning should have been added for women who have gone through the trauma of miscarriages if the creators wished to add such a scene.
This is amongst the first grievances filed against the newly formulated Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting in February this year. As per the new guidelines, the complaint needs to be registered within 24 hours and a resolution needs to be reached as soon as possible.
As of now, Netflix’s grievance redressal officer is looking into the matter. According to a report published by Mid-Day, the OTT platform’s spokesperson reached out to the production company RSVP Movies and Flying Unicorn Entertainment to share the complaint.
Anurag Kashyap reportedly reacted to the complaint filed against his directed short film. As per his Instagram story that is no longer visible, he said, “So it has started… A complaint came to Netflix on Ghost Stories. This is the end.”
Ghost Stories in an anthology of short films directed by Zoya Akhtar, Dibakar Banerjee, Anurag Kashyap and Karan Johar. It was released on New Year’s Day in 2020 on Netflix. Ghost Stories is the third of three anthology films from them, which was preceded by Bombay Talkies in 2013 and Lust Stories in 2018. Lust Stories was also released on Netflix.