Anurag Kashyap’s Ghost Stories faces complaint under Rules 2021

Digital news media was largely unregulated until the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting formulated the Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 earlier this year. Well, ‘Ghost Stories’, ananthology of Anurag Kashyap that streams on Netflix India has received a complaint. According to reports, this is the first examples of grievances under Rules 2021 that is received by Netflix India.

According to Rules 2021, to limit the creative freedom of OTT platforms and content creators, streaming giants should have a redressal mechanism in place so that the objection of the viewers can be addressed. And now after five months after its implication the first outcome of the guidelines can be felt.

As per a report, the complainant has objected to the scene in which the protagonist, portrayed by Sobhita Dhulipala, is seen eating the fetus from her miscarriage. The complaint reads, “The scene is not required for the story, and if the creators wished to add such a scene, there should have been a trigger warning for women who have gone through the trauma of miscarriages.”

The guidelines says that the users’ complaints must be registered within 24 hours and resolved at the earliest. The complaint against Anurag Kashyap’s ‘Ghost Stories’ is currently pending with Netflix’s Grievance Redressal Officer (GRO). The report further quoted a Netflix India spokesperson saying, “As this was a partner-managed production [RSVP Movies and Flying Unicorn Entertainment], we reached out to the production company to share the complaint.”