Censorship Hindi film « The Kashmir Files » has been rejected by the Film Classification Board of Mauritius — an appeal has been made by mCine
The Kashmir Files is a Hindi film directed by Vivek Ranjan Agnihotri. The film's story is based on video interviews of the first generation victims of the Genocide of Kashmiri Pandit Community In 1990. Among the cast are film stars like Anupam Kher, Mithun Chakraborty, Pallavi Joshi & Puneet Issar.
Hindi film « The Kashmir Files » was released in India on 11 March 2022. The movie was scheduled to release in Mauritius on Tuesday 15 March 2022 at mCine.
My wife Shelly and I, we had planned to watch the movie on Thursday and I was supposed to buy the tickets today. However, before I phone mCine to confirm whether tickets are still available for Thursday, to my surprise I read on mCine's Facebook page that the film has been rejected by the Film Classification Board.
In another update, mCine informed that they had appealed against the rejection and the decision could be taken today (Wednesday 16 March).
At the time of writing this blog post, no further update was published by mCine and The Kashmir Files remains banned in Mauritius.
I wanted to know more about the Film Classification Board and its members. More precisely, I wanted to know the reasons behind the banning of this movie. However, on the website of the Ministry of Arts and Culture Heritage, the names of the Board members are not available. I could only find the email and phone number of the Assistant Secretary, Mr. Ajay Hooloomann. Therefore, I sent Mr. Hooloomann a request for information to obtain the list of members on the Film Classification Board and members of the Film Classification Consultative Panels.
I haven't received any reply yet.
Nevertheless, in a Government Gazette of 2019, I found the list of members on the Film Classification Board. This list contains 41 Deputy Chairpersons and 99 Board members.
Grateful to someone on Facebook who pointed me to the publication of this list in the Government Gazette.
Update – 16 March 2021 21:24
About half an hour ago, MCine has posted on its Facebook page that « The Kashmir Files » has been awarded VISA 18. The film will play in MCine cinema halls as from tomorrow. Strict sanitary protocols to be observed.