House of the Dragon begins its second run on June 17, with the new season landing on Max (formerly HBO Max) and, in India, on JioCinema. However, the new season landed in India with some controversy. Thanks to a post by a social media portal, there is this report that the first episode of House of the Dragon Season 2 has been uploaded on JioCinema with its scenes censored. House of the Dragon Season 2 Episode 1 Review: The Game of Thrones Prequel Returns is Back With 'Vengeance', Literally!

The main reason that the portal, and even some netizens, feel this way is that the episode uploaded on Max is longer than that on JioCinema. As per reports, the episode being aired on international sites is about 58 minutes, but in JioCinema, it is about 55 minutes. So this reduction of three minutes means scenes have been cut from the Indian upload, right?

Adding fuel to this speculative fire is a recent incident involving another popular show. Prime Video's The Boys recently began its fourth season, dropping three episodes last week. However, Prime Video India has uploaded the episodes with some of the nudity either blurred or CGI-ed. This can be verified by this writer, who had watched the episodes from the screeners sent by the production house, but was shocked to find a couple of scenes being 'censored' when the episodes started airing on Prime Video India. The Boys Season 4 Censored by Prime Video India? Scenes of B*tthole, Orgy Either Blurred or CGI-ed for Desi Viewers.

With that in mind, netizens are now rooting for piracy. With the present allegation against JioCinema, some of them believe the streaming platforms are not delivering the content in the way intended by the makers for which they have paid.

The Post That Started the Debate

'OTT's Will Lose Its Sheen'

'Encourage Piracy'

But has JioCinema really censored the episode of House of the Dragon, as Prime Video India did with The Boys? The answer is mystifying. As per what we know, the violent and the sex scenes have been kept intact in the episode uploaded on JioCinema. Even JioCinema's support handle on X has confirmed this saying they have uploaded the episode as it is without any edits, while responding to a subscriber who had complained through X. They also clarified that the runtime was affected by 'technical aspects'.

We can verify that despite the presence of two sex scenes, including one act of cunnilingus and one child murder (that isn't shown visually but affirmed through gnarly sound design), the first episode of House of the Dragon Season 2 has not been compromised, at least in these aspects. Where the missing three minutes went and what these 'technical aspects' are that caused them to go missing remains to be seen.

(The above story first appeared on LatestLY on Jun 17, 2024 04:13 PM IST. For more news and updates on politics, world, sports, entertainment and lifestyle, log on to our website latestly.com).