Dibakar Banerjee says Netflix has cancelled the release of his film Tees, blames Tandav controversy for giving streamer cold feet

Dibakar Banerjee said that Netflix has backed out of releasing Tees, which he described as his 'best film to date'.

New Delhi | February 16, 2023 10:41 AM IST

4 min read

Dibakar Banerjee has worked with Netflix on two projects.

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Filmmaker Dibakar Banerjee has been forced to shop around his unreleased film Tees to potential buyers after Netflix refused to give it a platform. The director has surmised that the streamer got cold feet about the completed movie due to the political climate in the country.

In recent weeks, there have been multiple reports of prominent streaming platforms displaying caution with certain titles. The second season of Prime Video’s Paatal Lok and Anurag Kashyap’s ambitious Netflix adaptation of Maximum City both hit roadblocks, as did the planned third season of Sacred Games. Tees was announced in 2019 and described as ‘the story of an Indian family interwoven with the personal, ideological and sexual history of India.’ The cast includes Naseeruddin Shah, Kalki Koechlin, Manisha Koirala, Divya Dutta, Huma Qureshi, Zoya Husain, Shashank Arora and Neeraj Kabi. Banerjee shot the film in 2020 and delivered it to Netflix last year. After months of non-committal communication, the streamer informed him that it would not be moving forward with the release.

Also read | Anurag Kashyap says Netflix backed out of producing Maximum City, ‘policy changes’ post-Tandav caused Paatal Lok 2 to be stalled

In an interview with Deadline, Banerjee said that Tees (previously titled Freedom) isn’t even that political, and that he is unable to screen it at festivals because Netflix barred him from doing so, but the streamer has allowed him to distribute links of the film to potential buyers. “Netflix has never given me any other reason except they don’t know if this is the right time to release the film,” Banerjee told Deadline. “Given what happened with Tandav, the only conclusion to reach is that Netflix is reluctant to release the film out of fear of being similarly targeted. But the film I have made is very different to the web series in question.”

Banerjee added, “It’s not about any incendiary incidents – it’s about the daily life of an average middle-class urban family over three generations. But now my story is becoming eerily similar to one of the protagonists in the film. I also believe this is my best film to date. Although it has universal themes, it was made for an audience that remembers my other films, and is attuned to watching a film made by me, so it saddens me that they won’t be able to see it.”

This is not the first time that Tandav has been invoked as a tipping point for the Indian streaming industry. The political drama ran into serious trouble a couple of years ago, with Prime Video agreeing to make changes to a controversial scene. In a recent interview with The Lallantop, Anurag Kashyap spoke about the behind-the-scenes changes that have taken place in the industry since the Tandav fiasco. He said about Maximum City, “Netflix was supposed to do it earlier, but they aren’t doing it any more. The project had been green-lit, but a lot has changed since then on streaming. Lots of projects have stalled, like Paatal Lok season two… There have been leadership changes and policy changes at streaming companies. There was a show called Gormint which never came out. A lot has changed, and we’ve suffered because of it, on health and otherwise.”

Banerjee has previously collaborated with Netflix on the anthology films Lust Stories and Ghost Stories. He is best known for comedies such as Khosla Ka Ghosla and Oye Lucky Lucky Oye. His last release was Sandeep Aur Pinky Faraar.

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