The Kashmir Files Banned In Singapore

According to the country's InfoComm Media Development Authority, the Indian blockbuster The Kashmir Files has been banned in Singapore because it could disrupt religious unity.

ZEE5 and Vivek Agnihotri's The Kashmir Files- tells the story of a university student, who learns about the religiously tinged political unrest that led to the death of his parents in Kashmir in the 1990s.

According to the IMDA, the film "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," after consultation with the Ministry of Culture, Community and Youth and the Ministry of Home Affairs.

A multiracial and multireligious society like Singapore's, is at risk if these depictions stir up animosity among its citizens and threaten the country's social cohesiveness and religious harmony.

"Any material that is denigrating to Singapore's racial or religious communities will not be classified,” according to the Film Classification standards in Singapore.

Filmed on a budget of $2 million, the film was released in India and other countries in mid-March and has so far earned $43 million in ticket sales worldwide. ZEE5, the Indian broadcaster's multi-lingual streaming arm, is releasing a slew of new movies on Monday.

United Arab Emirates temporarily barred The Kashmir Files from airing. Ending in March, the UAE lifted its ban, and on April 7, 2022, the picture was re-released without cuts. As a result of concerns made by the Muslim community, New Zealand had to increase the film's rating from R16 to R18.

Singapore is a socially conservative country, and films and television series depicting drug use, possession, and trafficking are subject to censorship because of this. The country views same-sex sexual conduct as unlawful and does not recognize relationships between people of the same sex. Acts that could disrupt religious harmony are likewise strictly prohibited.

Singapore has the widest range of red lines in the world when it comes to censoring Netflix. There were only nine pieces of content that Netflix had taken down throughout the course of its (then) 23-year history, according to a statement it made in 2020. The Singapore government requested five of the nine.