Prasoon Joshi slams web series "Rasbhari"; Swara Bhaskar responds

Mumbai: Censor board chief Prasoon Joshi on Friday expressed his displeasure over certain sequences from actor Swara Bhasker’s latest web series “Rasbhari”, asserting that content creators need to be more responsible.

Set in Meerut, “Rasbhari” revolves around a boy Nand (Ayushmaan Saxena) who falls for his teacher (Swara). Things complicate when people find out about the teacher’s supposed “sex-obsessed” alter-ego.

The series is written by Shantanu Shrivastava and directed by Nikhil Nagesh Bhatt.

The Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) chairman said the makers should have spared the children in their “desperate” need for entertainment.

“Saddened by Web series #Rasbhari’s irresponsible content portraying a little girl child dancing provocatively in front of men drinking. Creators & audiences need to seriously rethink freedom of expression or freedom of exploitation? Let’s spare children in the desperate need for entertainment,” Joshi tweeted.

The series, co-created and produced by Applause Entertainment and Tanveer Bookwala, started streaming on Amazon Prime Video on Thursday.

In response to Joshi’s criticism, Bhasker said the lyricist had probably missed the subtext of the scene.

“With due respect sir, maybe you misunderstand the scene. It is the opposite of what you describe. The child is dancing of her own will and the father feels embarrassed. The dance is not provocative, the child is just dancing, she does not know that the society will sexualize her too. This is what the scene shows.

Bookwala also defended the show.

“Sir, I feel like the scene has misrepresented itself to you. Or you’ve missed the glaring subtext and meta satire. We’ve all lived through the family circus and dance. This isn’t a gender or age myopic exploitation, it’s the hypocrisy of the effects of pop culture on society,” he tweeted.

The series also features Rashmi Agdekar, Pradyuman Singh, Neelu Kohli, and Chitranjan Tripathi.