Popular streaming giant Zee5, the digital app of Zee Entertainment Enterprises, released their latest crime-thriller original series Abhay 2 starring Kunal Kemmu, Ram Kapoor, Nidhi Singh, Chunky Pandey, Asha Negi, Raghav Juyal and Indraneil Sengupta on August 14. The second installment to the psychological thriller Abhay is being helmed by Ken Ghosh and bankrolled by Akshay Singh, BP Singh, and Dr. Renu BP Singh under the Fiction Factory Productions and Firefly Productions banner for Zee.
On Sunday, August 16, the makers were slammed severely by Twitterati for their wrong depiction of youngest Martyr Shaheed Khudiram Bose who was a crucial part of India’s independence movement. In the second episode of the show, the freedom fighter’s photo has been pinned to a board of fugitive criminals along with the portrait sketches of several others. Netizens who took notice of this criticised the makers for their irreverence demanding an apology from the digital platform. They also trended the hashtag #BoycottZee5 on Twitter.
Boycott #Abhay2OnZEE5 for using the “Youngest” “Martyr” “Khudiram Bose ‘s” photo as a fugitive local criminal?#boycottzee5 #BoycottAbhay2 How dare you @ZEE5Premium ? pic.twitter.com/iiO9IOzOPP
— Raj Saha 🇮🇳 (@rajsahaofficial) August 16, 2020
Bengali hero revolutionary Khudiram Bose has been called “Wanted Criminal” in Zee5 Abhay 2 web series.
(Of course CBSE, ICSE students will not recognize).If it was a picture of Annadurai, MG Ramachandran or NT Ramarao, how much fire can u imagine burning in the south? @ZEE5India pic.twitter.com/FLFxBb6FoJ— S.Nazia.Hassan(SR) (@SyedNaziaHassa1) August 16, 2020
Boycott #Abhay2OnZEE5 for using the “Youngest” “Martyr” “Khudiram Bose ‘s” photo as a fugitive local criminal?#boycottzee5 #BoycottAbhay2 How dare you @ZEE5Premium? @mimichakraborty @nusratchirps @idevadhikari @swastika24 @myslf_soham apnara kichu toh bolun !! Ai bisoy ? pic.twitter.com/8nLRV43wRE
— Tushar Dey (@TusharD34502257) August 17, 2020
The platform was quick to respond to the flak, and put out an apology for hurting the sentiments of audiences. Further, ZEE5 also said that they have blurred out the image of the martyr in the second episode.
We unconditionally apologize for this error.
— ZEE5 Support (@ZEE5helps) August 17, 2020
But netizens have not been happy with the decision. They demanded that the scene is either removed from the episode or reshot and telecast. They were also unhappy with the usage of the word ‘community’.
That person belongs to India first then to any community. Make no mistake you’ve hurt the sentiment of this entire nation and what kind of crew you’ve who doesn’t even recognize our freedom fighters. I personally demand you to cut that scene, I’ve seen the series it won’t affect.
— Rupam Devnath (@DevnathRupam) August 17, 2020
To apologize is not enough. U should reshoot and re telecast the episode correcting details
— Sridip Roy Chowdhury (@csridiproy) August 17, 2020
Again u did mistake by using the word ‘community’. #KhudiramBose was an #Indian who gave his life for #INDIA. It’s not about offending a community, it’s about total disregard for a freedom fighter.
Kindly employ better people for research. Disgusting!— chaitali chowdhury (@chowdhuryspeaks) August 17, 2020
Shahid Khudiram Bose, doesn’t belong to any community. Like other Martyr’s of the land (Eg. Shahid Bhagat Singh) , Shahid Khudiram Bose, belongs to the entire nation. May you apologise wisely next time.
— Ari (@majumder_ari) August 17, 2020
A few months back, Zee5 had landed in trouble for their Tamil series Godman which spoke of the journey of a fake godman. Audiences branded it Hinduphobic owing to the depiction of sex and sleaze and slander against the Brahmin community in the trailer.
Read: Controversy Rages On Over Zee5’s Now-Cancelled ‘Godman’ Series; Here’s The Entire Story
Abhay 2 is an eight-episode series, and revolves around Kunal Kemmu’s character, Abhay, an investigative officer, who has the knack for solving crimes while thinking like the perpetrator. Inspired by true events, he is up against tougher criminals in this investigative crime thriller sequel.
Watch the trailer of Abhay 2 here.
