Critical reception of "Indian News Parade" was largely negative. After the newsreel was made compulsory in cinemas in 1943, the "Journal of the Film Industry" commented that, "the notification of compulsion seems to be an admission by Government that the more interesting class of the public found the films [Indian Movietone News] uninteresting". Exhibitors, who were obliged to pay a rental fee in order to show the now-compulsory newsreel, complained that the practice "smacked more of totalitarianism than democracy". The obligatory screening of the jingoistic "Indian News Parade" articles was felt to be insensitive in poorer rural areas, particularly when episodes touched lightheartedly on issues which directly affected them (such as the Bengal famine). In spite of the newsreels intent to make the news accessible to the general Indian population, its colonial bias meant that it was largely out of touch with its intended audience.