The actors and makers of web series "Tandav" on Amazon Prime vehemently urged the Supreme Court on Wednesday to grant them protection from arrest in several FIRs registered across the country, but the top court declined to accede to their request, and instead made some sharp oral observations on the show's content and stressed that freedom of speech is not absolute.

The petitioners were represented by senior advocates Fali Nariman, Mukul Rohatgi (for Amazon India Creative Head Aparna Purohit), senior advocate Sidharth Luthra (for producer Himanshu Mehra, director Ali Abbas Zafar and writer Gaurav Solanki), and advocate Siddharth Agarwal (for actor Mohammed Zeeshan Ayyub).