'Kukri' cleared by censor board, set to release on May 19

Last month, the director of Yasir Hussain and Ayesha Omar's film on Pakistan's most notorious murderer, Javed Iqbal, announced he has renamed the film to Kurki. Abu Aleeha further shared that he has resubmitted the film to the censor board, hoping to get a green light for release. The filmmaker also revealed that he has made the instructed edit to the film, so his project can be set for a cinematic release.

Seems like his patience has been rewarded. In a statement to The Express Tribune, Aleeha has confirmed that Kukri has been cleared by the censor board and is set to release on May 19. "The Almighty has been mighty kind to me this Ramazan," the director shared. The censor board has cleared the film on Javed Iqbal and we have renamed it to Kukri. The film will release on May 19. Congratulations to the entire team."

In a previous statement to the publication, Aleeha said that the new name is based on Javed Iqbal's nickname due to his sitting style. “We tried ourselves to independently release our film Javed Iqbal last time,” shares the director. “We didn’t have a proper distributor. Once we received the censor certificate, the way it was returned, a lot has already been written about that."

He went on to add, "Keeping that in mind, we have now joined hands with Eveready Pictures, a very credible distributor in Pakistan, and will resubmit Javed Iqbal through them. We submitted a request to the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting and the federal censor board to review the film again and whatever changes they want to make, we’re agreeable, if they give us the permission to play this in cinemas.”

“In this regard,” continues Aleeha, “They watched the film, previewed it again, and they suggested that we change the name of the film from Javed Iqbal, given that it may seem like we’re glorifying the character. The second thing is that when the film ends if we could give a message from our side about why we actually wanted to make this film. We’ve been saying this in all interviews, our goal was never to glorify Javed Iqbal or his crimes."

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