Talk of the town: Trolled for ‘stray' remarks, celebs allege bias; call channel to air unedited video

What the celeb participants allegeA day after the airing of the show, Badava Gopi took to Instagram to express his disappointment with the TV channel for editing out several key points and solutions that he had put forth. Ammu Ramachandran, too, shared a video following the backlash, stating that while she’s not scared of the trolling, she wanted people to know that the show was "recorded for eight hours, but trimmed to just 45 minutes", resulting in a biased view.

She claimed that more screen time was given to the anti-strays side and that host Gopi didn’t allow dog lovers to fully express their views. Meanwhile, content creator Janani Jaanu, who is being trolled for not contributing to the debate, stated that even during the shoot, she felt the show was scripted and TRP-driven. She criticised and urged the channel to consider live telecast for transparency.Why the controversy?While Gobinath pointed out that the stray dogs issue mostly impacts the middle and lower-middle class rather than the elite, animal lovers and activists called for compassion and coexistence, stating that blaming street dogs or their feeders isn’t the solution.

Soon after the episode was aired, several viewers expressed on social media that the dog lovers’ comments on the show were insensitive and lacked heft. And several memes and troll posts flooded social media.

However, animal welfare groups reportedly demanded the removal of the episode from the OTT platform, claiming that the tone of the debate could fuel hate against strays and feeders. And the participants on the show allege that the show has been edited in such a way to show dog lovers in poor light.

What happened?TV reality debate show Neeya Naana is in the middle of a storm as its August 31 episode on the stray dog menace has turned controversial. Hosted by Gobinath, the episode brought together animal activists, including celebs like Badava Gopi, Ammu Ramachandran and Janani Jaanu, and victims of dog attacks, to discuss the growing concerns.