Despite cuts, the show, directed by Ali Abbas Zafar and starring Bollywood A-listers Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia and Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, sank into more trouble.
Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh said police in the state had received a complaint and formal action would be taken in accordance with the law.
Demanding a law from the Centre to regulate content on the over the top (OTT) platforms to ensure there is no caste-based discrimination or communal divide, Deshmukh told reporters, “We have received a complaint. We will register an FIR and take action formally.” He did not specify who had lodged the complaint.
A four-member team of Uttar Pradesh Police, where three FIRs have been filed, also arrived in Mumbai in the morning to conduct a probe into a case registered in Lucknow. The team is likely to record statements of the makers and cast and crew of the show, which has been accused of hurting religious sentiments for its depiction of Hindu deities.
While some members visited the office of the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Detection-1) in suburban Andheri, two members went to the Mumbai Police headquarters in south Mumbai, officials said.
Keeping up the tempo, an FIR against the makers and cast was registered in the Madhya Pradesh town of Jabalpur on a complaint from a functionary of a little known Hindutva outfit.
“The process to verify the facts mentioned in the FIR filed against the director of web series ‘Tandav’ and others for allegedly promoting enmity in different religious groups and hurting religious feelings is on,” Jabalpur’s Additional Superintendent of Police (ASP) Amit Kumar told reporters.
In a related development, Madhya Pradesh Assembly protem Speaker Rameshwar Sharma wrote to Maharashtra Chief Minister Uddhav Thackeray demanding an FIR on the complaint filed by BJP MLA from Mumbai Ram Kadam and asking him “to take forward the legacy of” Bal Thackeray.