Aditya J is not enjoying the final season of The Boys. His disappointment began with the first episode, when a character who runs a corrupt religious organisation addresses Sister Sage, as his “sister in Christ.” She, not to be trifled with, delivers what must be a devastating line, going by her expression. But what does she say? Prime Video goes mute in that moment. No subtitles, even.
In a later episode, it happens again. A character, when asked if he sees himself as a prophet, becomes inaudible mid-conversation, ruining a defining plot arc. Worse, when someone on the show flings a figurine into a dustbin, the image is blurred entirely. In a show that explicitly depicts nudity, gore and violence, it felt odd.
“I started sensing it might be censored,” says the 27-year-old creative technologist from Bengaluru. Streaming platforms are not required to run their content by the Central Board of Film Certification before release, but many self-censor, anyway, fearing public backlash that might bring on a takedown order by the government. And they do not disclose what has been edited.
Indians thus far have shrugged this off. But fans have found a roundabout way to fill in the gaps: Reddit threads dedicated to scenes and lines blacked out of shows and movies. It’s where Aditya figured out which references had been obliterated from The Boys (no, we’re revealing nothing). And Reddit, being Reddit, it didn’t stop there. One devoted fan helpfully offered foreign-language translations, there were clips that had been deleted in versions abroad, runtime comparisons, and a geeky debate on what may have been censored and why.
This is where a new kind of fandom is being built and nurtured. Viewers who traditionally rallied around their favourite characters and scenes are banding around the bits they didn’t get to see. Cathartic commiseration, anyone?
Hide and seek
Fandom moves differently in the streaming era. When an episode ends, the scrutiny begins – music references, Easter eggs, cliffhangers, foreshadowing, trivia. So, a missing scene or line excludes Indian fans from conversations the rest of the world is having online. The problem is universal; even non-authoritarian regimes have arbitrary rules for what to show and shield from their people.
In Russia and China, scenes critical of the government are immediately deleted. In nations where sexual minorities do not have equal rights, LGBTQ+ themed references are removed. Much of the West bleeps profanity. In Australia, shows liberally use the C word, but blur nudity.
Indian streamers have cut out a scene in the show Supernatural, because it featured a wax idol of Gandhi coming to life and attacking a character. Netflix cut scenes depicting frontal nudity when it streamed the acclaimed Marathi film Sabar Bonda in India (but kept it in, for the international market). On the drama, Vikings, images of pork have been blurred. Last year, when the third season of The White Lotus dropped on JioHotstar, one scene featured a character who hurls expletives at a statue of the Buddha. It was later removed – but eagle-eyed fans picked up on it and knew where to go to vent.
Mumbai-based graphic designer Ashutosh Vyas, 29, initiated his own discussion on Reddit after he watched an episode of Bait and discovered that in a scene that involved the unveiling of an idol, Prime Video had blurred the whole screen. “The satire in that episode was lost,” he says. Online, plenty of viewers agreed. The thread ended up building a little fandom of its own.
Having their say
Misery loves company. So, it’s not hard for a fan to find a place to grumble–fan pages, Reddit threads, official YouTube channels, comment sections on Reels and counter-reviews on Letterboxd. But for Indian viewers, one sentiment endures: Why are we so often denied the original version?
Aman Bhargava, a web developer from Bengaluru who co-created CBFC Watch, a searchable public database tracking modifications made to movies, says it’s a recent grouse. “Historically, audiences didn’t know what was cut. They watched what was being shown to them,” he says. “Today, the cuts and edits are jarringly visible.” We’re chronically online; we know exactly what we’re missing.
We’re even building WhatsApp groups to swap stories of what might have been dropped from a movie or show in a different region in India. Amit Dadhich, 38 is part of a closed group of cinephiles that discusses how much of a new release has been trimmed, and which dialogues have been muted and why. Was a kissing scene shortened? Did a lyric go mute mid-song? “Sometimes, small lines of dialogue or moments are edited recklessly,” says the Mumbai-based writer. “We discuss it all.”
Here it comes
On Reddit, ardent viewers now anticipate censorship even before a show airs. Ahead of Euphoria’s new season on JioHotstar, one thread was devoted to how much of the sexually explicit story would be removed by Indian streamers. “Nudity is rarely cut, unless it’s frontal,” Vyas says. “Graphic violence stays intact. Scenes depicting religion are usually the first to be altered.”
Sethumadhavan Napan, a producer and film distribution consultant from Mumbai, says the online discussion reflects the adult public’s dissatisfaction with content they have chosen to see. “Why pay a premium price for a streaming subscription to view censored content?”
Besides, the cuts just compel curious viewers “to investigate even more,” says Aditya. The answers are literally a click away, neatly labelled and timestamped. It scratches the oldest storytelling itch of all: “Viewers shouldn’t have to second-guess what happened.”
From HT Brunch, May 30, 2026
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