BBC Documentary: 7 movies banned by the Indian government

BBC Documentary: 7 movies banned by the Indian government

Many movies and documentaries have been banned in India in the past, based on one strange reason or another.

FPJ Web DeskUpdated: Sunday, January 22, 2023, 04:34 PM IST
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As the Centre has issued directions for blocking multiple YouTube videos and Twitter posts sharing links to the BBC documentary 'India: The Modi Question.'

Many movies and documentaries have been banned in India in the past, based on one strange reason or another. Explicit content, sexual scenes, and religious sentiments—these are a few reasons why several films got banned in India. 

Let's look at 7 Indian films that have been banned by the Indian government.

Bandit Queen

This Shekhar Kapur movie was tagged as ‘offensive’, ‘vulgar’, and ‘indecent’. The movie was banned from release in India due to its explicit sexual content, nudity and harsh language. The Indian censor board too did not approve of the content. The film was banned before its January 1996 release date.

Black Friday

This Anurag Kashyap film was based on the Bombay riots of 1993 and the investigation that followed later. The film is based on a book by Hussain Zaidi and stars Kay Kay Menon, Pawan Malhotra, Gajraj Rao, Aditya Srivastav and others. The Indian censor board considered the film to be too dark and received a stay order from the Bombay High Court in 2004 because it mentioned the 1993 Bombay blasts and how the blast conspired. 

Fire

This Deepa Mehta film garnered a lot of appreciation globally, but back in India, it became a topic of rage and discussion. Fire talked about a lesbian relationship between two sisters-in-law in a Hindu family. Hindu groups were agitated by the theme of the film.  Shabana Azmi, Nandita Das along with their director Deepa Mehta even received death threats. The film never made it to theatres.

Kama Sutra – A Tale Of Love

Due to its sexual content, the Mira Nair film, which revolved around the lives of four lovers in the 16th century, was banned in India. The movie was banned in India, the country that gave birth to the very concept of the Kama Sutra.

Paanch

The first-ever feature film directed by Anurag Kashyap was never released in theatres. The high-octane thriller which starred Kay Kay Menon, Aditya Srivastav, Vijay Maurya, Sharat Saxena, and Joy Fernandes was banned from release in India in 2006 because of the use of crass language and drug abuse. The film is loosely based on the 1976–77 Joshi-Abhyankar serial murders in Pune.

Unfreedom

The film directed by Raj Amit Kumar showcased a lesbian couple and had a terrorism angle to the story was banned in 2014. The movie stars Adil Hussain, Preeti Gupta, Bhavani Lee, and Victor Banerjee among others. The film was never released in theaters, but it is now available on Netflix.

Parzania

The film, directed by Rahul Dholakia, revolved around a boy named Azhar who went missing during the Gujarat riots in 2002. The film stars Naseeruddin Shah, Corin Nemec, Sheeba Chadha, Asif Basra, Sarika Thakura and Raj Zutshi. The film won a National Award, but faced an unofficial ban after Bajrang Dal forced theatre owners to stop screening the film.

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