Indian cinema release of ‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ has been blocked. General Board of Film Certification (CBFC). According to the latest reports, the management stopped the planned release of the film citing ‘political connections’ behind the decision.According to a report in Variety, the film’s distributor Manoj Nandwana revealed that the Oscar-nominated film was submitted for certification in February with the intention of releasing it in time for Oscar season. The film was slated to release on March 6, giving the Indian audience more than a week to watch the film before it faces off at the Oscars in the Best Foreign Language Film category. However, CBFC did not clear it for theatrical release.Nandwana said the film, which tells the story of a real-life five-year-old Palestinian girl trapped in a car during an attack in Gaza, is being censored because it is “very sensitive”. He also said that a member of the CBFC told him that “if released, it would break the relationship between India and Israel”.“I told them, the India-Israel relationship is so strong that it is foolish to think that this film will break it,” added Nandwana, noting that the film has already been released in the US, UK, Italy, France and many other countries. “But they still want to censor it,” he said. The reported move has drawn criticism online, including from politicians Shashi Tharoor CBFC on the beat. In response to a publication about him, “This is quite shameful. In a democracy, screening a film is a reflection of our society’s freedom of expression and has nothing to do with government-to-government relations. This practice of banning films or books because of crimes that may affect foreign countries must be stopped immediately.” It’s not worth it for a mature democracy.”This is not the first time that the CBFC has stalled the release of an Oscar-nominated film in the country. Last year, the committee also blocked the release of the Hindi film ‘Santosh’, which was nominated for the Oscars in the UK’s Best International Feature Film category.
