OTT Producers Forum To Approach SC Against Arbitrary Police Action Against Content Creators

MUMBAI:  The OTT Film Makers, Artistes & Allied Workers Forum (OFAAWF) has decided to move the Supreme Court of India for clarity and interpretation on whether provisions of the Information Technology (IT) Act, Obscenity sections of the IPC and other similar sections under the Indecent Representation of Women Act are applicable to content providers of Adult OTT platforms wherein the content available is classified by the platform as “A” or Above 18 and requires explicit consent from viewers before it is made available to them.

This follows the announcement of Guidelines and Rules by the Government of India governing the OTT and Digital Space as well as the recent crackdown by the Mumbai police on various OTT producers like Tv actress Gehana Vasisth who was arrested by the Mumbai police for creating content which was classified as pornography by the law enforcement agencies.

Content providers like Gehana Vasisth obtain written consent as well as video consent from the actors and other players involved. They are paid as per industry standards, yet some actors later on go ahead and blackmail the content providers.

In other cases the police take suo moto action against content providers and book them under sections pertaining to the IT Act, Indecent Representation of Women’s Act and sections pertaining to Obscenity of the Indian Penal Code.

The Association of Adult OTT content providers and artistes OFAAWF wants directions to be issued to the police that registered adult OTT content providers who create content for an adult audience should not be harassed by the police and booked for sections which are not applicable to them.

To avoid harassment by law enforcement agencies and to create a level-playing field for all players, several adult content creators for OTT (Over The Top) platforms in India have come together to form an association.

Small OTT (Over The Top) producers, film makers, directors actors and allied workers today announced their own nationwide association to ‘protect the interests of the industry’ and to ensure that the laws of the land are properly interpreted and not misused.

Named as OTT Film Makers, Artistes & Allied Workers Forum (OFAAWF), the group consisting of more than 90 persons associated with the small OTT industry which caters to private APPs and even individual content providers came together at a meeting held at Oshiwara in suburban Mumbai.

The meeting held on Saturday was attended by about 46 persons – all connected or related to the industry including small OTT producers, directors, actors, cameramen, videographers and co-ordinators.

Amit Khare, Secretary of the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Friday said that the ministry has set three broad objectives to regulate Over-The-Top (OTT) platforms and digital media.

Khare further said: “We understand the types of media are different among each other completely. The print is different from Television, TV is different from films and films are different from web series. We cannot have the same criteria all over but there should be some sort of similarity in the goal post.”

“What was announced yesterday is a soft touch, self-regulatory mechanism with minimal interference of the government,” Khare added. On Thursday, Union Minister Prakash Javadekar and Ravi Shankar Prasad announced the new policies for the OTT platform and digital media.