‘The Voice of Hind Rajab’ blocked in India over fear of ‘breaking up’ India-Israel ties: Distributor

The Central Board of Film Certification has blocked the theatrical release of the film The Voice of Hind Rajab in the country owing to fears that it will “break up” ties between India and Israel, Variety quoted the film’s local distributor as saying on Thursday.

The Oscar-nominated film, directed by Kaouther Ben Hania, depicts the real story of Hind Rajab, a five-year-old Palestinian girl who was trapped inside a car attacked by Israeli forces in Gaza and later found dead.

The incident, which took place in 2024, occurred while Israel was carrying out unprecedented air and ground strikes on the besieged Palestinian enclave. The strikes, which began in October 2023, have left more than 70,000 persons dead.

Manoj Nandwana, who heads the Mumbai-based Jai Viratra Entertainment and is the distributor for The Voice of Hind Rajab in India, told Variety that the film is being censored as it “is very sensitive”.

The distributor claimed that he was told by a CBFC member that “if it gets released, it would break up the India-Israel relationship”.

He said that he had screened the film for the CBFC in February when he had submitted it for censorship approval. Nandwana added that he was planning to release it in India on March 6 “because we thought it was a good date” ahead of the Oscars.

The 2026 Oscar awards, which are organised by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, were held in Los Angeles on March 16. The Voice of Hind Rajab had been nominated in the International Feature Film category but did not win.

Nandwana told the entertainment news magazine that the film had not been cleared for release in India by the film certification board.

This came as Prime Minister Narendra Modi travelled to Israel in late February. During his visit, Modi had told the Israeli Parliament on February 25 that India stood with Israel “firmly, with full conviction, in this moment and beyond”.

Modi made the comment while expressing New Delhi’s condolences for the deaths of 1,200 persons, mostly Israelis, during the attack by the Palestinian militant group Hamas on Israel on October 7, 2023.

The attack had been followed by the Israeli military offensive in Gaza.

“We feel your pain” and “share your grief”, the prime minister told the Knesset. He added that like Israel, India has a “consistent and uncompromising policy of zero tolerance for terrorism, with no double standards”.

The prime minister said that “there is great admiration” in India for Israel’s “resolve, courage and achievements”, adding that “long before we related to each other as modern states, we were linked by ties that go back more than 2,000 years”.

The remarks came during Modi’s first visit to Israel since Hamas’ October 2023 incursion.

India’s longstanding position has been to support a two-state solution for establishing a sovereign, viable and independent state of Palestine within recognised and mutually agreed borders, living alongside Israel in peace.

Speaking to Variety about the release of The Voice of Hind Rajab in India, Nadawana said that he had told the CBFC that “the India-Israel relationship is so strong that it’s idiotic to think this movie will break it”.

He also noted that the film had been released in the United States, the United Kingdom, Italy, France and several other countries that have a relationship with Israel. “But they want to censor it anyway,” Variety quoted the distributor as having said.

Meanwhile, an unidentified government official told The Hindu on Friday that the film had been referred to a revising committee in the CBFC in the past few days, and that it would be reviewed by them now.

On the same day, director Kaouther Ben Hania asked in a social media post if “the honeymoon between the ‘world’s largest democracy’ and the ‘only democracy in the Middle East’ so fragile that a film could break it”.

In 2025, the film certification board halted the release of Indian director Sandya Suri’s Oscar-shortlisted Santosh. The film was set in a fictitious northern Indian state and depicted the caste system and politics based on religion.