Raam Ke Naam, a National Award winning film for Best Investigative Documentary which had also won the Filmfare Award for Best Documentary, examines the Vishwa Hindu Parishad’s campaign to build a Ram temple at the site of the Babri Masjid in Ayodhya, which the Hindutva groups claim as the birthplace of Ram. It also shows the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leader LK Advani’s rath yatra to gain support for the cause, which even resulted in the demolition of the mosque by Hindutva mobs on December 6, 1992, sparking riots across the country that resulted in the death of 2,000 people.
Youtube has recently put an age restriction on this 28 year old film. Anand Patwardhan, the director of this documentary, has shared in a facebook post,”Youtube is at it again, catering to Hindutva goons who want to kill all secular content. Latest is they have put an “age restriction” on my film Ram Ke Naam which has a ‘U’ certificate from CBFC, won a National Award and was shown at prime time (9 pm) on Doordarshan after the High Court ordered its telecast in 1996.”
Patwardhan later stated that he had submitted an appeal to YouTube about this issue, to which they responded after a second review that they had found that even though the video does not violate Community Guidelines, it 'may not be appropriate for general audience'.
He took to facebook again to share his reaction saying,“Now, if you are a child over 14 and under 18 you are allowed to do hazardous labour but you are not allowed to see Ram Ke Naam!” According to YouTube’s guidelines, age-restricted content is that which does not violate their policies, but is not considered suitable for all age groups.