Bahrain, Jul 16 (GDN): A CONTROVERSIAL Bollywood film that spotlights life in Kashmir has been banned in Bahrain, its makers have confirmed.

Bahrain was among five Gulf states, including the UAE, Oman, Kuwait and Qatar, to ban the hard-hitting Bollywood film Lamhaa (The Moment), which claims to tell the true story behind violence in the Muslim-majority region.

"We got the film cleared from the Indian government and there was nothing objectionable," director Rahul Dholakia told AFP.

"But the Gulf film authorities didn't feel so.

"I am extremely disappointed."

Mr Dholakia said he was shocked Lamhaa had been banned as he believed his film was about "peace and brotherhood".

Producer Bunty Walia said the film's Middle East distributor had confirmed the ban.

The film, which was released in India last Friday, stars veteran actor Sanjay Dutt, female co-star Bipasha Basu and Kunal Kapoor.

"Ban on an honest film? What happened to the freedom of expression?" Ms Basu wrote on the micro-blogging website Twitter.

Lamhaa had already fallen foul of India's censors and Kashmiris themselves, as resentment of rule from New Delhi runs high in the volatile Himalayan region.

The Indian censor board took issue with promotional trailers for the thriller and reportedly objected to its description of Kashmir as "the most dangerous place in the world", forcing Mr Dholakia to make cuts.

Locals were also reported to have forced the film crew to re-shoot a scene, angered at its depiction of a region racked by fighting and separatist protests for decades.

Conflict in Kashmir is a legacy of the partition of the Indian subcontinent after the end of British rule in 1947 and has been the trigger for two of three wars between India and Pakistan.

A Bahrain Cinema Company spokesman told the GDN yesterday that he hadn't been made aware of the ban, but could not comment further.