NEW DELHI, INDIA – MAY 23: Narendra Modi speakes to the victorious party workers at the BJP party head quarters in New Delhi, India. Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modis Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) is set for another five-year term on Thursday after a landslide victory as over 600 million people voted in a marathon seven-phase general elections which lasted over six-weeks. Supporters of the Hindu nationalist party celebrated in the capital New Delhi as Modi is scheduled to appear at the BJP headquarters and leaders across the world congratulated the Indian Prime Minister for his historic return to power for a second straight term. (Photo by Atul Loke/Getty Images)

Like Hollywood, Bollywood, the popular Hindi-language film industry, has historically been seen as a bearer of rather liberal values. Although Indian society has always been very divided both on a religious basis and in castes, cinema has long been a shared national passion, as well as a sector in which Muslim people, and therefore of a religious minority, or belonging to the most low, was given the opportunity to become famous.

But according to a lengthy report by Indian journalist Samanth Subramanian, published in the New Yorker, since Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) took office in 2014 it has become increasingly difficult to tell stories that do not conform to the worldview of the Hindu nationalists, both on the big screen and in series designed for streaming platforms.

Several producers, directors and actors spoke to Subramanian about how cases of explicit institutionalized censorship, boycotts, violent reactions from the most extreme nationalists and investigations for intimidation purposes have multiplied in recent years, as films and series that align with the vision of the India’s BJPs are heavily funded and in some cases tax exempt.

Since independence, various religious groups have coexisted in India: people who practice Hinduism are the majority (about 80%), but the latest data available, from 2011, found 14% of Muslims, 2% of Christians and less than 2% of Sikhs. The Buddhist and Jain communities are even smaller, but considering that the Indian population exceeds 1.6 billion people, it is still millions of people. Muslims live throughout the country, and are majority in the territories of Jammu and Kashmir and in the territory of Lakshadweep.

Relations between the Hindu majority and other religious minorities, especially the Muslim one, have never been relaxed, but have intensified a lot in the last decade. Since he was elected in 2014, Modi has promoted several laws aimed at transforming India from a secular country to a Hindu, through the weakening of the rights of minorities and Muslim communities. This process has been accompanied by growing authoritarianism and a frequent suppression of dissent.

Indian cinema has never been exempt from government control: since 1951 there has been a state authority in the country, the Central Committee for the Certification of Films (CBFC), which can order that a film be modified or essentially prohibit its distribution, refusing to issue a certification. In 2015, the former director of this institution resigned after denouncing pressure from the government and was replaced by Phlaj Nihalani, a director very close to Modi who opposed the presence of profanity, violence or sex in Indian films.

This story was originally published in ruetir.com. Read the full story here