India election commission blocks Modi Biopic
What you need to know:
- About 900 million people above the age of 18 will be eligible to cast their ballots at a million polling stations.
India's electoral body has blocked the release of Prime Minister Narendra Modi biopic ahead of the elections that begin on Thursday.
The decision comes despite India's censor board clearing the big budget movie for release with some minor modifications.
The BJP said it was not involved, but lead actor Vivek Oberoi is a noted Modi supporter. At the launch of the trailer last month he repeated a BJP election slogan – ‘Modi Hai to Mumkin Hai’ (Modi makes it possible) - in response to a question.
The film with the title PM Narendra Modi chronicles his journey from selling tea on local trains as a child through his time in the right-wing Hindu RSS organisation and nearly 13 years as chief minister of western Gujarat state.
According to the BBC, a trailer released last month elicited a furious reaction from the opposition in the World largest democracy which has over 900 million voters.
Mr Modi's ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had said stopping its release would be against freedom of expression.
But the commission said the film, which contains fictional elements, posed a "serious threat" to ensuring a level playing field for all candidates.
It said such a film "may create an impression of truthfulness of content" and could therefore not be displayed on any electronic media or at the cinema.
It also said that posters or publicity material for the film that depicted any of the candidates also had to be removed.
India's historic first election in 1951-52 took three months to complete. Between 1962 and 1989, elections were completed in four to 10 days. The four-day elections in 1980 were the country's shortest ever.
