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The Indian release of Academy Award-nominated film The Voice of Hind Rajab has been blocked by the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC), Variety reported on Thursday.

Manoj Nandwana, whose company Jai Viratra Entertainment was to distribute the film in India, said it was censored “because the film is very sensitive”.

He said he had hoped to release the film on March 6, giving audiences a chance to watch it in the run-up to the Oscars on March 16, but the CBFC refused to issue the necessary clearance, despite having received the request in February.

Nandawa claims a member of the board said they could not clear it for screening in theatres because “if it gets released it would break up the India-Israel relationship”.

For context, The Voice of Hind Rajab tells the real story of Hind Rajab, a six-year-old girl from Gaza who was travelling in a car with family during Israel’s brutal war on the occupied territory in 2024.

The film follows the little girl’s call to the Palestinian Red Crescent Society after her car comes under fire by the Israel Defence Force and several members of her family are killed. Israeli forces later killed Hind along with the paramedics dispatched to rescue her.

The distributor argued the film had been successfully released in several countries with strong ties to Israel with little diplomatic hoopla. “I told them, ‘The India-Israel relationship is so strong that it’s idiotic to think this movie will break it,’” he said.

India-Israel ties have strengthened significantly under the governments of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his Israeli counterpart Benjamin Netanyahu, with Modi becoming the first Indian PM ever to visit Israel in 2017. Netanyahu reciprocated the visit in 2018 and Modi became the first Indian leader to address the Israeli legislature — the Knesset — in February.

The Voice of Hind Rajab, meanwhile, has received critical acclaim wherever it has been played, especially in Venice, where it received a record-breaking round of applause at the Venice Biennale and took home the prestigious Silver Lion award.

The CBFC did not respond to Variety’s request for a comment, but this isn’t the first time they’ve blocked the release of a film because of its politically sensitive nature. Last year, they censored Indian director Sandya Suri’s police-procedural Santosh in light of the film’s critical portrayal of religious politics and the caste system.