Objectionable contents: IHC petitioned against Bajrangi Bhaijaan

Petitioner claims the movie is against ‘social’ and ‘moral’ values of Pakistan

ISLAMABAD: Much like its lead star Salman Khan, upcoming Bollywood flick Bajrangi Bhaijaan keeps getting caught up in court.

With its release around the corner, the exhibition of the movie has been challenged before the Islamabad High Court (IHC).

Justice Aamer Farooq will hear the petition filed by Petitioner Faisal Akbar of the Alliance for Welfare Society for Development Advocacy (AWSDA) on Wednesday. The movie is slated to be released on July 17.

The petitioner has made the chairman of the Central Board for Film Censors (CBFC) and secretary information and broadcasting as respondents.

The petitioner said the board in sheer disregard of the law and being overwhelmed by the undue influence of commercial interest purportedly issued a certificate to the film.

In the recent past, two Indian movies — Kabul Express and Ek Tha Tiger — were banned from exhibition in Pakistan because of their highly objectionable contents against the country and negative depiction of our society and social values, Masroor Shah, the counsel for the petitioner stated.

The film undermines Pakistan’s integrity as an independent state, he stated.

The respondents have either been hoodwinked or they have deliberately turned a blind eye to the affidavit given by the producer of the film that 90 per cent of it has been filmed abroad and not in India hence it should be treated as a non-Indian foreign film and granted certificate for exhibition in Pakistan accordingly, the petition revealed.

Not a single scene of the film has been filmed outside India yet the CBFC has purportedly issued certificate for its exhibition in Pakistan as non-Indian foreign film, he said.

The petitioner has prayed the court to render the certificate issued by the CBFC for public exhibition of the film as illegal and restrain respondents from allowing exhibition of the film in Pakistan.

Published in The Express Tribune, July 15^th, 2015.