Five years after the Saif Ali Khan-fronted Chef, filmmaker Raja Krishna Menon is all set to return to cinemas this year with a war drama, Pippa. The film, which stars Ishaan Khatter and Mrunal Thakur in the lead, tells the heroic story of Brigadier Balram Singh Mehta of the 45th Cavalry tank squadron who, along with his siblings, fought on the eastern front during the Indo-Pakistan war of 1971. The shooting for this Ronnie Screwvala and Siddharth Roy Kapur production has been completed and will hit theatres on December 9. While the release date for Menon’s feature film has already been locked, there has surprisingly been no update on his web series, which he finished much before Pippa. And now, one hears the show has been stalled.
Peepingmoon.com has exclusively learned that Raja Krishna Menon’s dark comedy series, Baa Baa Black Sheep, has been scrapped. Amazon Prime Video has apparently shelved this 10-part series to avoid the possible controversy some religious elements in the show could draw. "Raja Menon’s show is a social satire about the Godmen culture and exposes Indians' blind devotion to Dhongi Babas in a satirical way. It’s more along the lines of Satyajit Ray's 1965 Bengali film, Mahapurush, which tells the story of a religious Hindu family that falls prey to a fraudulent god-man. While the project has turned out well, Amazon Prime’s team is wary of its uncomfortable religious elements, as they could cause a prolonged dispute among a section of the audience. The global streamer cannot afford such a risk at this moment when the Bollywood industry is already suffering from the boycott trend, and hence has decided to put this show on the backburner for the time being," a source close to the development told us.
It’s not yet clear if Amazon Prime has permanently shelved the show or plans to release it later when circumstances are a little better in the country. They are also contemplating erasing all the controversial bits, sources say, but that would quell the essence of the show as those controversial sequences are all integral parts of the plot. The makers are expected to take the final call on this series in January. The show, for those unaware, is a dark-comedy revolving around a new-age spiritual guru who thrives on the ignorance of the masses. Priyanshu Painyuli, Ashutosh Rana, Rukshar Dhillon, Divya Dutta, and Dinesh Prabhakar play the lead roles in this series, shot between December 2020 and February 2021.
Baa Baa Black Sheep’s cancellation is a testament to the changes made in the OTT platforms’ content strategy after the back-to-back politically planned controversies and the new guidelines notified by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry to regulate OTT platforms. Netflix, Amazon Prime Video, SonyLIV, MX Player, and all the streaming sites have been extremely cautious about their content lately. They are exercising discretion and avoiding content that depicts social and political realities, as that could draw protests and negativity, altering their business market in India.
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