Dibakar Banerjee has an impressive filmography. Known for cult classics like Khosla Ka Ghosla, Oye Lucky! Lucky Oye!, and Love Sex Aur Dhokha, the filmmaker is a respected name in Bollywood. However, he feels that there is one that got away – his ambitious project, Tees, which was shelved by Netflix due to concerns about controversies. (Also read: Dibakar Banerjee’s stalled film Tees premieres at DIFF to rousing reception: Here’s why Netflix India isn’t releasing it)

When Netflix shelved Tees

Tees has been in limbo for a few years, ever since Netflix pulled the plug on it in 2021. The film was finally screened at the Dharamshala International Film Festival this year, raising hopes of a wide release in 2025. After the screening, Dibakar spoke to Moneycontrol and addressed the time when Netflix had shelved the film. “I went through anger, frustration, depression and at that time, I couldn’t tell. But both my daughters kept saying ‘papa, you are always angry’. After that, I started therapy, and I was fine,” he said.

Tees was developed for a Netflix release in 2020-21, but the streaming giant decided not to go ahead with the release sometime in 2021. Dibakar noted that Netflix was ‘very helpful’ during the film’s making and he and his team self-censored much of the content. However, after a change of guard in Netflix’s leadership, the new team pulled the plug on the film. Tees is about three generations of an Indian family, which begins in the 1980s and ends in 2042.

Dibakar Banerjee doesn’t hold it against the streamer

Dibakar said that he does not hold it against Netflix executives for backing out, particularly since all this happened when executives from Amazon Prime Video faced death threats and legal cases over the controversial series, Tandav. “If you file a case against executives, or they have death threats against them, or troll them, or file a few non-bailable cases against them, push them into paying ₹20-30 lakh to lawyers in political cases, they will get scared and people will start self-censoring,” he said.

Tees stars Manisha Koirala, Divya Dutta, Naseeruddin Shah, Huma Qureshi, Shashank Arora, Zoya Hussain, and Neeraj Kabi. Dibakar has said he is ‘knocking on all doors’ to see if someone can buy the film from Netflix and give it a release. So far, there is no update on the film’s release.