New Delhi: Singapore has banned Bollywood film ‘The Kashmir Files’ citing concerns that the movie might disrupt harmony in its “multi-racial and multi-religious society”.
The controversial film on the exodus of Hindus from the Kashmir Valley in the 1990s has been assessed to be “beyond” Singapore’s film classification guidelines, reported news agency PTI.
The country’s authorities told Channel News Asia: “The film will be refused classification for its provocative and one-sided portrayal of Muslims and the depictions of Hindus being persecuted in the ongoing conflict in Kashmir.”
The statement added, “These representations have the potential to cause enmity between different communities, and disrupt social cohesion and religious harmony in our multi-racial and multi-religious society.”
Under the film classification guidelines, “any material that is denigrating to racial or religious communities in Singapore” will be refused classification, they added.
Congress MP Shashi Tharoor shared the Singapore government’s statement Tuesday and tweeted: “Film promoted by India’s ruling party, Kashmir Files, banned in Singapore.”
The film’s director Vivek Agnihotri immediately hit back: “Singapore is most regressive censor in the world… Pl stop making fun of Kashmiri Hindu Genocide.”
Dear fopdoodle, gnashnab @ShashiTharoor,
FYI, Singapore is most regressive censor in the world. It even banned The Last Temptations of Jesus Christ (ask your madam)
Even a romantic film called #TheLeelaHotelFiles will be banned.
Pl stop making fun of Kashmiri Hindu Genocide. https://t.co/QIxFjJW86U pic.twitter.com/kzodpI1CtL
— Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri (@vivekagnihotri) May 10, 2022
Written and directed by Agnihotri, ‘The Kashmir Files’ opened in India on 11 March and got a thumbs-up from Prime Minister Narendra Modi and other BJP leaders. Several BJP states made it tax free while Assam gave state employees time off to watch it.
The film, however, has divided opinion among critics for playing to anti-Muslim sentiments and being factually incorrect.
Last week, Agnihotri had alleged an “international political campaign” against him and the film after Delhi’s Foreign Correspondents Club and the Press Club of India cancelled a media interaction.
The 48-year-old instead met reporters at a five-star hotel close to the Press Club. PTI quoted him as saying: “They blame us for Islamophobia. I categorically put on record that Islamophobia is being used as a political weapon against my film under an international political conspiracy. The film is actually anti-terrorism. The film does not use the word ‘Muslim’ even once. The film does not use the word Pakistan or Pakistani. It’s an anti-terrorism film.”
Also read: Agnihotri slams foreign media houses for cancelled presser, says ‘Kashmir Files’ not Islamophobic