Manoj Bajpayee, Divya Dutta, Rasika Dugal: Actors bat for self-censorship on OTT platforms

Censorship on web platforms has been hotly debated for long. While the medium came under the ambit of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting last year, an official censoring body remains absent in the country.

Of late, there has been an increasing demand to censor content on OTT platforms, more so after shows such as Taandav , Mirzapur and The Family Man 2 got embroiled in controversies. While the makers, as well as platforms on which they were streamed, faced flak, even actors were blamed for the objectionable scenes their onscreen characters were a part of.

To avoid such unsavoury incidents, many stakeholders believe that instead of blindly following the script, actors must have greater say to exercise some form of self-censorship. They should be at liberty to express concern over content which they themselves feel isn’t required or might be problematic.

And this already seems to be happening, too. Actor Manoj Bajpayee, who has headlined two seasons of The Family Man, says, “We’re very honest with the product we made. So much so, that if there’s an actor who improvised on a cuss word, and we thought it wasn’t needed, our directors, Raj & DK, would ask the actor to not use that particular word in that situation.”

Bajpayee, 52, further says that actors are responsible people as well and “we don’t do things just for the heck of it or just because there’s freedom to do anything on OTT. We’re responsible with the freedom we’ve been given on this medium,” he points.

Actor Rasika Dugal, who has been a part of a lot of popular OTT shows content such as the Mirzapur series and Our of Love season 1 and 2, notes that there are creative conversations which everyone engages in, and the story dictates what’s essential and what’s not.

“There will be some things which aren’t required, but everybody can have a different idea of it. Sometimes people you’re working with agree with you, if they don’t, there’s a middle ground. The environments I’ve worked in has been very healthy,” she shares.

She doesn’t want to approach self-censorship from the viewpoint that anything that might become controversial later should be deleted beforehand.

“There are certain shows or parts which are done only for effect. Some aren’t As an actor, I don’t have any blanket rule,” Dugal adds.

Instead of censoring content, should there be any alternative? Actor Sharad Kelkar favours categorising content according to suitable age groups and not censoring it altogether.

“You can give some warning, 16 or 18 ages and above. Our show The Family Man 2 was also rated A, when there was nudity or abusive language. If you’re educated and sensible, you won’t watch it. Characters are fictional, so don’t take it to your heart,” says Kelkar, 44, admitting that there are some makers who use elements like nudity and strong language to grab eyeballs.

“But because of one scene, if you censor the whole series, phir mazaa nahi aata. On the other hand, there are shows which are only sold on nudity and cuss words, so censorship should look into those kind of shows,” he asserts.

Talking of self-censorship, Special OPS actor Divya Dutta is clear that if her character really demands it, she’s up for it. “I’m lucky I’ve worked with directors who self-censor their work. If something has to be presented, it must be an integral part of the story. I don’t question that at all. But if you’re showing someone as totally wild a**, you can’t tame it,” she says.