Vivek Agnihotri's Worldwide Blockbuster 'The Kashmir Files' Banned In Singapore

Mumbai, May 11 - The Indian box office blockbuster, "The Kashmir Files" has been banned in Singapore by the country's InfoComm Media Development Authority.

Directed by National-Award-winning filmmaker, Vivek Rajan Agnihotri, "The Kashmir Files" is about the exodus of the Kashmir Pandits during the Kashmir Insurgency in 1990, which led to the killings of Kashmir Hindus. The film centers around a university student who learns about the religiously charged political turmoil that led to the death of his parents in Kashmir.



While banning the movie, the InfoComm Media Development Authority of Singapore stated that it could disturb religious harmony, The censor board, after consultation with the Ministry of Culture, Community, and Youth (MCCY) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA), found that the film to have exceeded the Film Classification Guidelines for its provocative and one-sided portrayal of Muslims and the depictions of Hindus being persecuted in the on-going conflict in Kashmir.

"These representations have the potential to cause enmity between different communities and disrupt social cohesion and religious harmony in Singapore's multi-racial and multi-religious society", the Classification Information from Singapore censor board reads.

"The Kashmir Files", produced by Tej Narayan Agarwal, Abhishek Agarwal, Pallavi Joshi, and Vivek Agnihotri, was made on the budget of 20 crores and it went on to gross 335+ crores worldwide, becoming one of the biggest box office blockbusters of Hindi film industry.



This is not the first time when Singapore has banned movies on religious grounds. The socially conservative country had previously banned last year's French movie "Benedetta" which it found "portrayal of Jesus Christ and members of the church in a manner that is insensitive and offensive to the Christian and Catholic faith".

The country also does not recognize same-sex relationships and considers same-sex sexual activity to be illegal. In this regard, it banned films like "Boy", "Female Games", and "Bakushi", among many others. The strictness of the Singapore censor board also didn't spare streaming platform Netflix, which said in 2020 that it had taken down only nine pieces of content worldwide in its history and 5 of them were at the request of the Singapore authorities.

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