Actor Suniel Shetty Bats Against OTT Content Censorship

Actor turned entrepreneur Suniel Shetty is not in favour of censorship for OTT content. According to him, it is certainly wrong to sell junk by taking advantage of no censor, but given the fact that every generation has its own demand for content, makers of OTT releases have to be responsible. 

Talking to Hindustan Times, Shetty said, “I don’t believe that good doesn’t sell and only evil sells, so let’s get onto that bandwagon. That is where we are going wrong, and it is because of social media.”

The actor who made a comeback to screen through OTT, feels that makers need to be morally responsible when it comes to explicit content. He is of the view that age and content related restrictions should be very much there. 

Shetty said that he comes from a background where family is very important. According to Shetty, “It matters a lot. We have to be conscious about this as producers and as actors and creators”.

There have been fumes of debate over censorship on OTT content. In April, actor Salman Khan’s comments further ignited it. The actor expressed displeasure towards the vulgarity on these platforms and requested film makers to avoid use of abusive language in their content. 

While Shetty is not in favour of it, Khan said, “I really think there should be censorship in the medium (OTT). All these vulgarity, nudity, swearing should stop. Kids as young as 15 or 16 years old can watch them.”

The debate is emerging at a time when the Information and Broadcasting Minister Anurag Thakur also warned the OTT platforms that in the name of entertainment and creativity, vulgarity and abusive language will not be accepted. He further added, “These platforms were given freedom for creativity and not for obscenity and when one crosses the limit, then hurling abuses in the name of creativity cannot be accepted at all.”

Earlier this year, Thakur informed the Lok Sabha that the ministry has redressed 265 grievances against over-the-top (OTT) content under the IT rules, 2021. 

Several petitions have been filed at the Punjab High Court, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh and Allahabad. However, in March this year, the Supreme Court stayed proceedings of cases seeking regulation of content on over-the-top (OTT) platforms, including Netflix, Amazon Prime Video and Disney+ Hotstar and others.