Akshay Kumar's 'Bell Bottom' banned in three Gulf countries

While the UAE has cleared the project, the film is still banned in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait

Bell Bottom opened to spectacular reviews in India earlier this week. However, much to the dismay of the cast and crew of the film, the Akshay Kumar-starrer seems to have landed in hot waters in Gulf countries. While the United Arab Emirates has reportedly cleared the project for release on the big screen following several objections previously, the film is still banned from hitting cinema screens in Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Kuwait, according to Bollywood Hungama.

The publication reported that Bell Bottom was initially not cleared in the UAE because it showcases the country in a bad light. It stated that there are some discrepancies between what is shown in the film and the actual facts of the incident. However, UAE authorities gave a green signal to the film soon after.

Earlier, only a few hours after its release in India, Bell Bottom was leaked online. The HD format of the film was freely available for download. Piracy websites such as Tamilrockers and Filmywap among others, had uploaded the leaked version of the film for audiences to download or stream.

“It is really sad to see a film of this magnitude get leaked online. This is despite the immense efforts that everyone had taken to prevent the film from being leaked. It’s about time that the government takes stern steps in order to prevent such happenings in the future, even though it is tough to prevent such leaks online. But, with the advent of digitalisation all over, it should be easy to curb the menace of films being leaked online,” an industry insider told Masala!

Bell Bottom was the first film in the world to start and finish filming during the Coronavirus pandemic. Akshay wrote about the accomplishment on Instagram and called it a “teamwork” success. He previously penned, “It’s teamwork and I am grateful to each and every member of the cast and crew from the spot dadas to the light dadas to the technicians to the make-up dadas to my lovely heroines Vaani, Lara, Huma, my director Ranjit and to Vashuji and the production team who believed in our audacious plan.”

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