SINGAPORE: Singapore has banned a controversial Indian film over its “provocative and one-sided portrayal” of Muslims in IIOJK that officials fear could provoke religious and ethnic tensions in the city-state.

Released in March and one of India’s highest-grossing films this year, “The Kashmir Files” depicts in harrowing detail how several hundred thousand Hindus fled in IIOJK in 1989 and 1990.

The movie has been endorsed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi, and seized on by Hindu hardliners to stir up hatred against the country’s Muslim minority.

Critics say it tackles themes close to the political agenda of Modi’s Hindu nationalist government, which has often been accused of marginalising and vilifying Muslims.

The media regulator in Singapore refused to classify the film, meaning it cannot be screened. The decision was due to the movie’s “provocative and one-sided portrayal of Muslims and the depictions of Hindus being persecuted”, officials said in a statement late Wednesday.