New Delhi: Bollywood movie ‘Haider’, based on Kashmir and directed by Vishal Bhardwaj, may not be released in Pakistan after the censor board objected to some contentious scenes.
Shahid Kapoor, Tabu, Kay Kay Menon and Shradha Kapoor are in key roles in the film, which is set in the Kashmir of 1995 when militancy was at its peak.
Dawn reported that the movie may not get the much-needed ‘No Objection Certificate’ by the censor board.
The newspaper cited sources as saying the film was previewed and sent to the censor board for approval and after watching it, the body decided not to go ahead with the release because of some controversial elements related to Kashmir.
When contacted, Zareef Abbasi, the spokesperson of Central Board of Film Censors in Pakistan, however, said the film has not been presented to them so far.
“The question of banning any film or allowing its screening arises after it is presented to the board,” he said.
The producers were not immediately available for a comment.
Haider was slated for release on October 2 with ‘Bang Bang’, but while the shows for the Hrithik and Katrina starrer are scheduled in Pakistan, there was no information on the screening of Haider.
The newspaper said the distributors in the country had already anticipated that Haider may not be released in Pakistan.
Earlier, Pakistan had banned the release of Salman Khan starrer ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ and Saif Ali Khan starrer ‘Agent Vinod’, because it had references to India’s external intelligence agency RAW.Â