The Indian government has remained defiant over its ban on a BBC documentary about the 2012 fatal gang-rape of a student in Delhi despite a groundswell of acclaim for the film from prominent Indians who watched it online.

After India’s Daughter broadcast in the UK on Wednesday night, the hour-long film surfaced on YouTube, where the Guardian was able to view it on Thursday afternoon despite reports in Indian media that the government had ordered it be taken down.

India’s home minister, Rajnath Singh, has threatened to take action against the BBC, though did not elaborate on what form this may take, save that “all options are open”.

Police in Delhi continue to pursue the investigation against filmmaker Leslee Udwin, who has left the country, and her Indian crew. Officers visited the homes and offices of Indian crew members on Thursday in a bid to collect the entire footage of the film.

Though online viewing figures for the documentary about Jyoti Singh’s death remained in the low thousands, there was much acclaim from influential literary and Bollywood figures who questioned the necessity of the government’s ban.

“It’s one of the best documentaries I’ve seen – it’s moving and makes you think,” said the novelist Chetan Bhagat. “It’s bone-chilling, yet it shakes you up – it’s a must-watch film.”

Pls watch "India's daughter" http://t.co/wdLs4ec2b1 .. We need to understand and eradicate the evil within us n around us — Genelia Deshmukh (@geneliad) March 5, 2015

“Pls watch “India’s Daughter” … We need to understand and eradicate the evil within us n around us,” tweeted actor Genelia D’Souza, who is married to the son of a former state chief minister.



I stand by #IndiasDaughter a film by the @BBC-insightful,shocking,frustrating,sad, we need a SOCIETAL OVERHAUL https://t.co/TpEEaBwFvp — Aditi Rao Hydari (@aditiraohydari) March 5, 2015

The actor Aditi Rao Hydari called the film “shocking, frustrating, sad – we need a societal overhaul”.

But home minister Rajnath Singh was resolute on the government’s ban, which is supported by nearly all India’s political establishment. Most politicians seem to believe the film is bad for India’s image, while one Delhi MP worried it could affect tourism.

When an NDTV reporter caught up with him on Thursday, Singh was celebrating the Hindu festival of Holi, and was smeared with coloured powder. Yet his demeanour remained stern when asked for his reaction to the BBC4 screening.

“All options are open to the the government, including legal action,” he said. “We had asked to not release the documentary, but BBC still released it. We will investigate, and take action accordingly.”

The film has sparked a fierce debate in India because it includes an interview in which one of the convicted rapists, Mukesh Singh, blamed his victim – saying she should not have been out at night and should not have fought back.

Mukesh Singh, who drove the bus on which the woman was raped and murdered, appears in the film, unapologetic for his crime. He told Udwin: “A decent girl won’t roam around at nine o’clock at night. A girl is far more responsible for rape than a boy.”

Rajnath Singh said the film had breached the terms under which it was permitted to interview the rapist inside Delhi’s central jail.

NDTV reported that officials were considering what action the government could take against the BBC. “Officials acknowledge BBC can’t be asked to leave India for showing the film,” the channel said. “The government is in a very, very big bind on this.”

The last time the BBC was asked to pack up and leave Delhi was under prime minister Indira Gandhi in the mid-1970s. Foreign ministry officials have reportedly made it clear there cannot be a diplomatic protest to the UK either over the BBC screening.

When YouTube continued to show the film even after the government sent out a letter informing web portals of the Delhi court order against India’s Daughter, the home ministry summoned the head of the information and technology ministry’s computer emergency response team to explore the possibility of blocking internet gateways in order to black out the film.

But even as Delhi tried to prevent Indians from seeing the film, Asha Singh, the mother of rape victim Jyoti, questioned the police’s failure to file a case against the two defence lawyers who make misogynist statements in Udwin’s film.

“One lawyer says he will pour petrol over his daughter and burn her at his farmhouse if the girl were to behave ‘improperly’, yet there is no police case against him,” said Asha Singh. “The government should do something to save women, it should fight these flames in society that threaten and scare women.”