Mumbai, Jan 20 (IANS): As a controversy and protests raged across India, the Mumbai Police on Wednesday lodged a first information report (FIR) against the team of web series "Tandav" including Bollywood actor Saif Ali Khan, officials said here.

The FIR followed a complaint lodged by opposition Bharatiya Janata Paty spokesperson Ram Kadam a day after he staged a protest march in Ghatkopar on Tuesday against the show which streams on OTT platform Amazon Prime Video.

The Ghatkopar Police Station lodged the FIR against "Tandav: Director Ali Abbas Zafar, Producer Himanshu Mehra, writer Gaurav Solanki, Amazon's top officials like Aparna Purohit and Amit Agarwal, invoking Indian Penal Code Sections 153(A), 295(A) and 505(2), according to a police official.

The FIR coincided with the arrival of a team of Uttar Pradesh Police to investigate the complaints against the web series even as Maharashtra Home Minister Anil Deshmukh assured that action would be taken in the matter.

On Sunday, the Ministry of Information & Broadcasting had sought an explanation from Amazon Prime Video on the issue that sparked pan-India protests after the political drama began airing from January 15.

Following this, the "Tandav" team tendered an apology: "The web series 'Tandav' is a work of fiction and any resemblance to acts and persons and events is purely coincidental. The cast and crew did not have any intention to offend the sentiments of any individual, caste, community, race, religion or religious beliefs or insult or outrage any institution, political party or person, living or dead."

Besides Saif Ali Khan, the 9-part web-series features Dimple Kapadia, Sunil Grover, Kumud Misra, Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub, Tigmanshu Dhulia, Sarah Jane Dias, Kritika Kamra, Dino Morea, Sandhya Mridul, Anup Soni, Neha Hinge, Hiten Tejwani, Amyra Dastur and others.