{"id":354799,"date":"2026-03-19T18:54:09","date_gmt":"2026-03-19T18:54:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/354799\/"},"modified":"2026-03-19T18:54:09","modified_gmt":"2026-03-19T18:54:09","slug":"the-voice-of-hind-rajab-censored-in-india-amid-growing-israel-ties","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/354799\/","title":{"rendered":"‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ Censored in India Amid Growing Israel Ties"},"content":{"rendered":"

\n\tThe Indian theatrical release of Kaouther Ben Hania\u2019s Oscar-nominated feature \u201cThe Voice of Hind Rajab<\/a>,\u201d which was planned for this month, is being blocked by the country\u2019s Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) for political reasons, according to the film\u2019s local distributor.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cThe Voice of Hind Rajab\u201d \u2014 which tells the story of a real 5-year-old Palestinian girl who was trapped inside a car attacked by Israeli forces in Gaza and later found dead \u2014 is being censored by the CBFC because \u201cthe film is very sensitive,\u201d distributor Manoj Nandwana, who heads Mumbai-based Jai Viratra Entertainment, tells Variety.<\/p>\n

\n\tNadawana said he screened \u201cThe Voice of Hind Rajab\u201d for the CBFC in February, when he submitted the film for censorship approval, and was planning a March 6 Indian release \u201cbecause we thought it was a good date ahead of the March 16 Oscars.\u201d Instead, the film has not been cleared for release and he was told by a CBFC member that \u201cif it gets released it would break up the India<\/a>-Israel relationship,\u201d Nadawana said.<\/p>\n

\n\tIndian Prime Minister Narendra Modi traveled to Israel in late February, where he received a warm welcome, marking the first visit by an Indian premier in the 25 years since the two countries established full diplomatic relations. The visit, which aimed to strengthen economic and technological ties between the two countries, underscored a shift in Israel-India relations under Modi, whose embrace of Israel marks a departure from India\u2019s foreign policy that has historically supported the Palestinians.<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cI told them: the India-Israel relationship is so strong that it\u2019s idiotic to think this movie will break it,\u201d Nadawana added, further noting that \u201cThe Voice of Hind Rajab\u201d has been released \u201cin the U.S., U.K., Italy, France and many other countries that have a relationship with Israel.\u201d<\/p>\n

\n\t\u201cBut they want to censor it anyway,\u201d the distributor said.<\/p>\n

\n\t The CBFC did not respond to a request for comment from Variety.<\/p>\n

\n\tIn September, \u201cThe Voice of Hind Rajab\u201d elicited more than 20 minutes of thunderous applause when it world premiered at the Venice Film Festival and then went on to win the fest\u2019s Silver Lion. The film has been released in the U.S. by Willa, the production partner\u2019s distribution arm, after other U.S. distributors passed.<\/p>\n

\n\tThis is not the first recent instance of India\u2019s CBFC blocking a release when they deem a film to be politically sensitive. Last year, they halted the release of Indian director Sandya Suri\u2019s Oscar-shortlisted \u201cSantosh\u201d <\/a>despite the fact that the police procedural \u2014 which is set in a fictitious northern Indian state and has Indian caste and religion politics deeply baked into it \u2014 had previously secured script approval to shoot in India and tapped into Indian government production incentives.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Indian theatrical release of Kaouther Ben Hania\u2019s Oscar-nominated feature \u201cThe Voice of Hind Rajab,\u201d which was planned…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":354800,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[27],"tags":[93,61,2568,60,270,48112],"class_list":["post-354799","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-movies","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-india","tag-ireland","tag-movies","tag-the-voice-of-hind-rajab"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354799","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=354799"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354799\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/354800"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=354799"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=354799"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=354799"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}