Anurag Kashyap's short film in 'Ghost Stories' lands him in trouble, complaint filed

Giant streaming platform Netflix has received a complaint against ace filmmaker Anurag Kashyap for his short film in anthology Ghost Stories. The case has been registered as one of the first examples of grievances after the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting formulated the Information Technology (Guidelines for Intermediaries and Digital Media Ethics Code) Rules 2021 earlier this year.

Complaint against Anurag Kashyap's short film in Netflix anthology Ghost Stories 

According to a report by Mid-Day, the objections were raised against a scene in the short film, in which the character played by Sobhita Dhulipala eats a foetus after suffering a miscarriage.

The complaint notes, “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.”

According to the report, complaints must be registered within 24 hours and solved at the earliest. The report quoted Netflix India spokesperson as 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.”

According to various media reports, the filmmaker had also taken to his Instagram story which no longer exists, and wrote, “So it has started... A complaint came to Netflix on Ghost Stories. This is the end.”

Ghost Stories was released in January 2020 and included four short films directed by Zoya Akhtar, Anurag Kashyap, Dibakar Banerjee, and more prominent directors. It was a follow-up to the filmmakers' 2018 anthology Lust Stories. Netflix India has previously experienced backlash around titles such as Sacred Games and A Suitable Boy, while Amazon Prime Video has witnessed similar problems with titles such as The Family Man and Tandav.

Anurag Kashyap's short film in Ghost Stories

Anurag Kashyap's horror story leans heavily into reality and bases its characters in a backdrop of psychological terrors. Sobhita Dhulipala is essaying the character of a woman trying to conceive a baby after going through a miscarriage. Sobhita's character is seen being in paranoia when she is pregnant for the second time. The only concern she has is that the baby she is carrying is not harmed in any way. On the other hand, Sobhita's character also has a nephew who is obsessed with her as he doesn't have a biological mother. Sobhita's character ultimately loses the grip of reality as she loses her second child too, her nephew is seen being happy about not having to share his aunty's love with anyone else. 

IMAGE: ANURAGKASHYAP10/Instagram