Hollywood film Monkey Man, a revenge action drama starring the British actor Dev Patel, has been edited to change saffron political banners to red, social media users noted as the film’s pre-release publicity was under way over the past month. The film is also directed by Mr. Patel, who launched his career with the 2009 film Slumdog Millionaire. Monkey Man was originally purchased by Netflix, which the Hollywood portal World of Reel reported passed on releasing the film because of themes that could offend right wing viewers in India.
The subtle edit — which emerged when the same shot was used in two different trailers — underscores the pressures to which Hollywood is increasingly succumbing in India, a market which accounts for a small but growing share of its global earnings. This sort of treatment is similar to changes made to access the influential Chinese movie market. In the 2012 remake of Red Dawn, for instance, the war action film initially had the Chinese army as antagonists — this was edited to North Koreans in post-production. Hollywood studios work closely with Chinese censors to release films in the country, which has a small but lucrative quota for foreign films each year. The government carefully screens each film for themes that may be upsetting to audiences (or unsettling for the government).
Venki Manickam, a Texas-based engineer who caught a preview screening of Monkey Man in Austin, confirmed that some of the saffron banners had been changed to red in the film. “But the flags are still saffron,” Mr. Manickam said. “That looks exactly like BJP insignia.”
