Supreme Court issues notice to Mirzapur makers and Amazon Prime Video for maligning UP town’s image

The Supreme Court on Thursday issued notice on a plea by Suresh Kumar Singh challenging the bad-life portrayal of Mirzapur District in the famous web-series Mirzapur on Amazon-Prime OTT platform.

A three-judge bench headed by the Chief Justice S.A. Bobde, and Justices A.S. Bopanna and V. Ramasubramanian has issued notice to the Centre, Excel Entertainment Pvt Ltd. And Amazon Prime Video and sought their response.

The petitioner has challenged how the city of Mirzapur has been displayed as being full of terror, crime, and other illegal activities in the fictional series which after all maligns the image as the city of Uttar Pradesh.

“The plea has been filed in order to protect the historical and cultural value of District Mirzapur located in Uttar Pradesh. Mirzapur city was founded in the 17th Century and by 1800 it became the greatest trading centre in Northern India. Mirzapur is famous for carpet and brassware industry. Mirzapur had rich cultural value but in 2018 Excel Entertainment has launched a web series Named Mirzapur of 9 episodes in which they have shown Mirzapur a city of goons and adulteress,”

-averred in the petition.

It further said,

“it is shown in the series that lady belongs to Mirzapur having sexual affair with her servant and with her Father-in-Law as well. By showing such ridicules and shameless things on the name of a City/District is the insult of approximately 30 lakhs population and rich culture of Mirzapur.”

The petitioner has sought directions to stop/ban the release of the Web Series Mirzapur 2. It sought directions to the Centre to set up a pre-screening committee for web series, films or other programs which are directly released on online platforms. Further, it sought directions to Ministry of Information and Broadcasting to make certification mandatory from Government authority before releasing any Web Series, Movie or any other program on online platform.

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