When Netflix India decided to delete a journalist’s question without his consent

MUMBAI: With binge-watching on the rise, new shows from Indian content curators have emerged as the main attraction. The creative license that these platforms have enables the providers to self-regulate and ensures that their creative freedom is protected. One such huge player in the market is Netflix, which won over the audience with Sacred Games.

Netflix India follows the Hollywood standard of engagement with regard to organizing media interactions. They provide a ready-made set-up where the scribe interviews the concerned stars and the footage of the conversation is later sent to the particular media house or journalist (or the interviewer).

In August 2019, journalist Sonup Sahadevan took to social media to share a surprising incident against Netflix India. He was a part of a media interaction for the release Sacred Games 2, wherein he interviewed director Vikramaditya Motwane and actor Pankaj Tripathi.

He asked a question to Pankaj, which the actor answered. Like always, the scribe left the building after the interaction and the interviewed footage stayed with Netflix India.

When he received the footage, he realized that Netflix had edited out that particular question without his consent.

He then took to social media to share his concern.

A while later, a Netflix representative reached out to him and said that this was a one-off incident that they regretted.

However, he now wants Netflix to put an end to the practice of disallowing the press from having their own camera and crew for Netflix interviews in order to safeguard the freedom of press.

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