Netflix recently canceled a film entirely off the back of Discovery Plus' playbook, although Indian politics may have played a role.
According to Deadline, the completed film Tees by Indian filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee has been put on hold, and now Banerjee is looking for a buyer, but that process is hampered by Netflix's decision not to allow the film to be shown at festivals. The film, which is in Hindi, was shot in 2020 and completed in 2022.
Banerjee was invited to take part in the International Film Festival of Rotterdam (IFFR), but he could not get Netflix to approve it. Banerjee said it gave him permission to take the film around, but it does not want it to take part in festivals if it does not intend to release it.
Netflix has just sat on it with no intentions for a release, before eventually deciding to eschew it all together.
"Netflix has never given me any other reason except they don't know if this is the appropriate time to release the film," Banerjee said. "Given what happened with Tandav, the only conclusion to reach is that Netflix is reluctant to release the film because of fear of being similarly targeted."
According to the Indian Express, Tandav is an Amazon Prime Video release that was accused of "hurting religious sentiments of a section of the audience," especially with its now-controversial scene featuring Mohd Zeeshan Ayyub, dressed as Shiva, uttering words about 'azaadi."
Prime Video was charged with slander. It's possible that this news has made Netflix more adamant about releasing the film.
Freedom is a story of an Indian family interwoven with India's personal, ideological, and sexual history, according to a 2019 release. It is also one of several films that have stalled due to the country's increasingly difficult political situation.
Kashmir during political turmoil in the 1990s, a daughter in a bid to purchase an apartment in Mumbai, but she is unable to do so because of her religion, and a dystopian future in which a son tries to publish a novel.
Naseeruddin Shah, Kalki Koechlin, Huma Qureshi, Shashank Arora, and Neeraj Kabi star in the film. Banerjee claims that the film isn't politically problematic or even that controversial at all.
"It's not about any incendiary incidents, it's about the everyday life of an average middle-class urban family over three generations," he said. "I believe this is my finest film to date. Although it has universal themes, it was made for an audience that is attuned to seeing a film made by me, so it saddens me that they won't be able to see it."