Home Minister Ahmad Zahid Hamidi said the movie by the controversial filmmaker, whose real name is Wee Meng Chee, also contained allegations revolving around citizenship and painted national agencies in a negative light.

“It also contains negative elements, such as the Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual Transgender (LGBT) lifestyle,”

Zahid, who is also deputy prime minister, said this in a written reply to R Sivarasa (PKR–Subang) who wanted to know why the Censorship Board snipped out 31 scenes from the movie, although Singapore had screened the 90-minute film in full.

Zahid, also revealed that the Censorship Board had discussed their concerns with the producers and explained to them that the “negative” dialogue and scenes had to be altered.

“However as the producers did not make the recommended changes, the board decided to ban the film.”

“Banglasia”, according to past reports, revolves around a group of individuals from different backgrounds who learned to put aside their differences and come together as one.

Despite being banned in the country, the film was screened at several film festivals including the Osaka Asian Film Festival 2015 (OAFF), New York Asian Film Festival 2015 (NYAFF) and Singapore International Film Festival 2015 (SGIFF).