ETV Win or Loss? Who’s to Blame for Polluted ‘AIR’?

All India Rankers, the recently released youthful campus drama series, has landed its OTT platform, ETV Win, in a huge controversy. Netizens are lashing out at the way the show has portrayed sensitive topics like caste and religion while “attempting” to preach good to the audience.

In AIR, a controversial scene belittles the a particular caste with its malignant and derogatory depiction. Needless to say, this buffoonery has angered countless people hailing from the community. Several netizens and intellectuals opine that portraying one particular caste is just not the right way to preach caste eradication, and in fact, it actually goes against the very topic of caste equality.

And it’s not just caste but even religion that AIR and its makers had fiddled with. Netizens who have watched the series following the controversy were quick to notice the propaganda behind the portrayal of the Hindu religion in AIR. For instance, popular comedian Sunil is shown as a villain who wears Ayyappa mala. Not stopping there, AIR also has a couple of “bad” Hindu students who spoil a bright “other religion” student.

Netizens are blasting All India Rankers OTT partner ETV Win for turning a blind eye while the show’s director, Joseph Clinton, and producer, Sandeep Raaj of Colour Photo fame, allegedly pushed their agenda. Although the makers issued an apology and ETV Win has removed the controversial content, it’s too late, the spark has turned into a wildfire. While ETV Win deleted the content from its platform, clips had already circulated on social media, making them impossible to erase.

The irony is that the owners of ETV Win’s Ramoji Group belongs to the same caste that was targeted. Moreover, the controversial segment not only touched on caste issues but also appeared to belittle a ruling political party.

With the country constantly battling religious tensions and caste-based issues on a daily basis, artists and filmmakers need to be more responsible and cautious than ever to avoid igniting unnecessary controversies and communal flares.

That said, there is another side to the whole AIR controversy. A section of netizens opine that there are more burning issues in the country that need urgent attention, but people have chosen a web series as their soft target, leaving the real problems in the air. Only time has the answer!