Overview
- Anand Patwardhan says YouTube flagged or removed his 1995 documentary Father, Son and Holy War from his official channel for being “too violent,” while the film remains available on at least one other YouTube channel.
- The film won two National Film Awards and a Bombay festival prize and was the subject of a legal battle that led the Supreme Court to order its broadcast on the public broadcaster Doordarshan.
- Patwardhan condemned the action as censorship, saying the documentary documents and exposes communal violence and misogynistic rhetoric rather than promotes it.
- This is part of a pattern the filmmaker has reported, including a 2019 YouTube age restriction on his 1992 film Ram Ke Naam and earlier limits on Jai Bhim Comrade.
- The inconsistent availability points to uneven platform enforcement that could reduce public access to historically validated, politically sensitive documentaries and there is no public rebuttal from YouTube in the cited coverage.