Home Minister Rajnath Singh said on Wednesday he would investigate how a film crew managed to interview a death row convict who expressed no remorse for his part in the fatal gang rape of a woman in New Delhi in 2012, an attack that sparked outrage.
Leslee Udwin's "India's Daughter" features conversations with Mukesh Singh and fellow convicts who raped and tortured a 23-year-old woman on a moving bus in December 2012.
To defuse the escalating row over the documentary by a British film-maker for BBC to be aired on March 8, the Union home ministry asked BBC, external affairs and information and broadcasting ministries and department of information technology to ensure it is not broadcast anywhere.
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Singh said the documentary would not be aired in India and accused its makers of violating "permission conditions" by not showing the complete unedited footage to jail officials.
"It was noticed the documentary film depicts the comments of the convict which are highly derogatory and are an affront to the dignity of women," Singh told MPs in parliament. "How was permission given to interview a rapist? It is shocking. I will get this investigated."
In a new development late in the night, BBC said, "Given the intense level of interest in the Storyville film, India's Daughter, we have brought transmission forward to 10pm tonight, March 4, on BBC Four to enable viewers to see this incredibly powerful documentary at the earliest opportunity"
Comments released to the media this week showed that in the film, Mukesh blames the victim for the crime and resisting rape. He also says women are more responsible than men for rape. "You can't clap with one hand - it takes two hands," he says in the film, according to a statement by the filmmakers.
"A decent girl won't roam around at nine o'clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy ... Housework and housekeeping is for girls, not roaming in discos and bars at night doing wrong things. About 20 percent of girls are good."
Late on Tuesday, the home minister directed Delhi Police to obtain a court order prohibiting the film's release. Police said the ban was imposed as Mukesh's comments created an atmosphere of "fear and tension" and risked fuelling public anger.
Udwin, a rape victim herself, said she was "deeply saddened" by the decision.
"I urge (Prime Minister Narendra) Modi to deal with this unceremonious silencing of the film," she wrote in a statement published by NDTV, which was to have aired the documentary on March 8, International Women's Day.
NDTV also reproduced letters showing Udwin had obtained permission from the home ministry prior to carrying out the interviews, and had the consent of Mukesh in Tihar jail.
Udwin told reporters on Tuesday she had given jail officials a chance to sit through hours of unedited footage, but they did not do so. Officials later approved a pared-down version, she said.
The British filmmaker, who worked on the film for two years and was inspired to make it after watching thousands of people take to the streets across India in protest over the 2012 rape, said it would be released worldwide as planned.
A BBC spokesperson said, "This harrowing documentary, made with the full support and co-operation of the victim's parents, provides a revealing insight into a horrific crime that sent shock waves around the world and led to protests across India demanding changes in attitudes towards women. The film handles the issue responsibly and we are confident the programme fully complies with our editorial guidelines. The BBC will broadcast the documentary in the UK and was never due to broadcast the film in India. Assassin Films, the production company that made India's Daughter has assured the BBC that it fully complied with the filming permissions granted by Tihar Jail and we are confident the film fully complies with our editorial guidelines."
India toughened its anti-rape laws in response to the outcry following the 2012 attack, but a rape is still reported on average every 21 minutes in India, and acid attacks, domestic violence and molestation are common.
Mukesh's comments in "India's Daughter" have grabbed headlines in Indian newspapers and sparked outrage on social media. Some people have questioned whether the convicts should have been given a forum to express their views.
On Wednesday, the issue was debated in Parliament.
Four men including Mukesh were sentenced to death for the crime, but their execution was later stayed on appeal by Supreme Court.
One of the defendants hanged himself in prison, while another, who was under 18 at the time, got three years in juvenile detention.
