Singapore Bans ‘The Kashmir Files’, Says It Can Cause Enmity: Reports

FILE PHOTO: A man walks past a poster of "The Kashmir Files" outside a cinema in Mumbai on March 16, 2022 (Reuters)

‘The Kashmir Files’, a Bollywood movie on the exodus of Hindus from the Muslim-majority Kashmir Valley, will be banned in multi-racial Singapore as the film has been assessed to be “beyond” the city-state’s film classification guidelines, a media report said on Monday.

The authorities have assessed the Hindi-language film to be “beyond” Singapore’s film classification guidelines, said the Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) in a joint statement with the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth (MCCY) and the Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

“The film will be refused classification for its provocative and one-sided portrayal of Muslims and the depictions of Hindus being persecuted in the on-going conflict in Kashmir,” the authorities told Channel News Asia.

“These representations have the potential to cause enmity between different communities, and disrupt social cohesion and religious harmony in our multiracial and multi-religious society,” they said.

Under the film classification guidelines, “any material that is denigrating to racial or religious communities in Singapore” will be refused classification, they added.

The Vivek Agnihotri-directed movie, being screened in India since March to mixed reviews, is based on the exodus of Kashmiri Pandits from the Kashmir Valley the 1990s due to terrorism.

The film, written and directed by Agnihotri, stars Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty and Pallavi Joshi in lead roles.

Though it was called out for its problematic politics by some critics and authors, it performed exceptionally well at the box office by minting over Rs 330 crore.

The movie also sparked a debate among political parties after several BJP-ruled states, including Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh and Gujarat, gave it exemption from the entertainment tax.

Before ‘The Kashmir Files,’ Agnihotri has directed ‘The Tashkent Files’ based on the mysterious death of former prime minister Lal Bahadur Shastri in 1966. His other film credits include ‘Chocolate’ and erotic thrillers ‘Hate Story’ and ‘Zid’.