Kangana defends earlier tweet on Tandav, says 'insects and worms need pesticide'

Amid the existing controversy over the web series Tandav, actor Kangana Ranaut on Monday added more to it with her now-deleted tweet.

The web series — directed by Ali Abbas Zafar and starring Saif Ali Khan, Dimple Kapadia, and Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub — is currently under fire over allegations of hurting religious sentiments of Hindus.

Ranaut had tweeted, “Because even Lord Krishna forgave 99 mistakes of Sheshupala.... pehle Shanti phir Kranti (Silence must be followed by revolution) .... time to take their heads off... Jai Shri Krishan…” A few netizens believed her tweet was inflammatory, while others felt Ranaut was calling for violence against the Tandav production team.

Many criticized the actor for her tweet. However, a few others also defended her, saying the words ‘take head off’ was an idiom that meant, ‘to scold or berate someone severely’ and was not to be taken literally.

Ranaut retweeted her previous tweet and defended her previous tweet by saying, “Jo libru dar ke maare mummy ki god mein ro rahe hai, woh yeh padh lein. Maine tumhara sir kaatne ke liye nahi kaha, itna toh main bhi jaanti hoon ki insects ya worms ke liye pesticide chahiye hota hai (The liberals who are scared and crying on their mothers’ laps must read this. I did not ask for you to be beheaded. Even I know that insects and worms need pesticide).”

She had also said, "The problem isn’t just the Hindu phobic content, it’s also creatively poor and deprived, atrocious and objectionable on every level hence deliberately placed controversial scenes. Put them in jail not just for criminal intentions but also for torturing the viewer #tandavwebseries."

The controversy over the series was around the first episode, in which the narrator tells Lord Shiva that he had to do something to improve his popularity on social media since Lord Ram's popularity was increasing. In response to that comment, Lord Shiva is seen asking whether he should come up with a new display picture.

Following Kangana’s tweets and the general outrage over certain scenes in the series, director Zafar issued an apology on Twitter that read, “The web series ‘Tandav’ is a work of fiction and any resemblance to acts and persons and events is purely coincidental. The cast and crew did not have any intention to offend the sentiments of any individual, caste, community, race, religion or religious beliefs or insult or outrage any institution, political party or person, living or dead.

“The cast and crew of ‘Tandav’ take cognizance of the concerns expressed by the people and unconditionally apologize if it has unintentionally hurt anybody's sentiments.”

Furthermore, the Tandav team said on Tuesday that they had decided to make changes to the web series to address the concerns raised by people. “The cast and crew of Tandav have made the decision to implement changes to the web series to address the concerns raised towards the same. We thank the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting for the guidance and support in the matter. We once again apologize if the series has unintentionally hurt anybody’s sentiments,” director Zafar’s statement said.