The second season of web series ‘Abhay’, released on OTT platform Zee5 recently, has stoked a massive controversy after it portrayed freedom fighter Khudiram Bose as a ‘criminal’ in one of its episode.
On Sunday, netizens took to social media platforms to accuse the makers of the web series of disrespecting the revolutionary leader Khudiram Bose by portraying him as a criminal. In the second episode of the newly released season on OTT platform Zee5, the social media users alleged that the image of the freedom fighter was placed along with photographs of other criminals in a police station.
Social media users pointed out how disrespectful it was to portray a legendary freedom fighter as a petty criminal.
Name of web series: Abhay 2. Platform: @ZEE5Premium
— Raman Bhatnagar🇮🇳 (@ramanbhatnagar4) August 16, 2020
A scene in the second episode shows the picture of famous #kayastha freedom fighter khudiram bose in the list of most wanted criminals in a police station! @ZEE5India @AbhayOnZEE5
@ZEE5Support
– this is not acceptable pic.twitter.com/SaaQrGNZ84
Few social media users also demanded the removal of portions from the series and asked the creators of the series to immediately apologise for their blatant act of disrespecting country’s icons.
How can you explain this!!! Brave martyr freedom fighter Khudiram Bose’s sketch in a suspected criminal list in Abhay2 in @ZEE5India. I demand immediate removal of that sketch and unconditional apology from its creators @kunalkemmu @subhashchandra @kenghosh pic.twitter.com/5qEAXStHFI
— Sayantan Dey (@sayantandey165) August 16, 2020
Netizens also schooled the creators for lack of their knowledge and asked them to know about country’s heroes.
Who is Khudiram Bose?Get to know from your mother-in-law. Know the history of the country first.Khudiram Bose was a martyred revolutionary.Should be ashamed as an Indian. @kunalkemmu @ZEE5India pic.twitter.com/qd6wDsbkry
— PRATAP BISWAS (@Pratap02) August 16, 2020
Shocking to see Zee5 web series Abhay 2 using Bengali freedom fighters Marty Khudiram Bose’s image as mug shot of criminal. pic.twitter.com/paXREQIwuP
— Aparna (@chhuti_is) August 16, 2020
Here is a closer look of the scene of the series ‘Abhay’, in which a sketch identical to Khudiram Bose is depicted as a criminal.
If we carefully look at the sketch of the person, circled in red, who has been shown as a ‘criminal’ in the web series, one can easily identify him as one of the country’s greatest freedom fighters – Khudiram Bose. The close-up of the scene in the show and a publicly available sketch of Khudiram Bose are given below. It can be clearly concluded that the makers of the show used the same sketch in Abhay 2.
Khudiram Bose was the youngest revolutionary freedom fighter, who was executed on August 11, 1908 for his role in the Muzaffarpur conspiracy case. Khudiram Bose, along with another freedom fighter Prafulla Chaki, had attempted to assassinate a British judge, Douglas Kingsford. Unfortunately, the bombs did not hit the judge’s carriage but hit a different one, leading to the death of two others.
Shockingly, the creators of the movie, lacking knowledge about country’s own heroes, attempted to disrespect our icons for its pretty commercial gains.
