For Amazon Prime users in India, The Grand Tour’s fourth episode reportedly wasn’t nearly as long as the rest of them—in fact, it was apparently less than half of the length it should have been due to censorship from Amazon for the Indian market.
According to recent reports from Mashableand other websites, IMDb lists The Grand Tour’s fourth episode as 30 minutes in India compared to 62 minutes without censorship. Jalopnik could not locate the IMDb link to back this information up, but the screenshot to the left comes from Shifting Lanes and shows the fourth episode being listed on Amazon Prime as 30 minutes and 23 seconds in length.
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Mashable reports that The Grand Tour isn’t the only streaming program that undergoes censorship by Amazon for India, but that sources who wished to remain anonymous said a majority of the program cuts are only a couple of seconds.
But Mashable reports that Amazon cut the scenes showing a vehicle with various parts made of a cow’s organs, as the cow is a widely respected animal in many Indian cultures. Here’s what Amazon had to say in response to the censorship, according to Mashable:
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“Amazon Prime Video offers the largest selection of movies and TV shows of any OTT video service in India and give customers the choice on what to watch. Amazon is a responsible company and we are here to entertain the Indian customer with award-winning content from the US along with blockbusters from Indian and regional makers,” the company said in a statement to Mashable India.
“We will keep Indian cultural sensitivities in mind while offering this content to customers,” the company added.
Mashable reports that most of the other Amazon censorship for the Indian market is much less extensive, explaining that some stills with nudity have been blurred. From Mashable:
The vast majority of content on Amazon Prime Video for India is untouched, sources at the industry and company added. Less than one percent of the catalog has been censored, another person said.
It should be noted that Top Gearwasn’t the best about keeping everybody happy around the world, with World War II, Hitler, Hispanics, workers on strike in Britain, Asian people and residents of Argentina being just a few of the subjects of Jeremy Clarkson’s more offensive jokes during his time hosting the show. Using a lot of caution during censorship could be to keep that from happening under Amazon.
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The report went on to say that television censorship in India sometimes takes place in accordance with local law. But if the Amazon Prime customers in India are unhappy with the censorship, it’s not like they’d the first to download the show illegally.
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