Just days after a Delhi University professor was booked for calling goddess Durga "sexy prostitute" in a Facebook post, an independent filmmaker from Thiruvananthapuram is fighting to get the censor board to approve his internationally awarded movie titled "Sexy Durga".

Sanal Kumar Sasidharan's Malayalam movie is the first Indian film in 23 years to win laurels since the Tiger Awards were introduced at International Film Festival Rotterdam (IFFR).

It has been refused censor exemption to be screened at the upcoming Jio MAMI Mumbai Film Festival with Star 2017 next month as the Information and Broadcasting Ministry concluded it "may affect the law and order as it hurts the religious sentiments", said the filmmaker.

He said the film had no religious connection.

"If at all there's one, it's truly philosophical, analysing the reasons behind the atrocities against women in India," Sasidharan explained.