An Indian movie that showed the daughter of a Hindu priest eating meat sparked outrage on social media, so Netflix decided to remove it from its streaming service.
The majority religion in India is Hinduism, and most Hindu priests and their families follow a vegetarian diet.
As of Thursday, the Tamil-language movie “Annapoorani – The Goddess of Food,” which debuted in theatres in December and streamed on Netflix that same month, was no longer accessible on the global streaming service.
At Netflix’s Mumbai office on Wednesday, protesters from the Vishwa Hindu Parishad (VHP), a conservative Hindu group connected to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party, chanted anti-Netflix and anti-Movie slogans, as per a post made by VHP spokesperson Shriraj Nairon X.
In the movie, the daughter of a Hindu temple priest in Tamil Nadu, a state in the south of India, is shown consuming meat and then cooking meat in a high-stakes cooking competition.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, Ramesh Solanki, identifying himself as the head of an organisation called “Hindu IT Cell,” stated, “This film… is intentionally released to hurt Hindu sentiments.”
Solanki claimed to have complained about the movie to the Mumbai police, citing a number of scenes he believed to be offensive to Hindus.
One of the largest streaming markets in the world, India, is home to hardline religious groups that have frequently targeted Netflix and competitors like Amazon and Disney.
