NEW DELHI: Two Hindi films, Aishwarya Rai-starrer Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Ajay Devgan-starrer Shivaay, won’t be released in Pakistan, film critic and trade analyst Taran Adarsh tweeted on Wednesday.
Adarsh said he was told about this development by Fox Star Studios and Reliance Entertainment, the distributors of Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Shivaay, respectively.
Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, which features Pakistani actor Fawad Khan, found itself at the eye of a political storm in India after the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) said it wouldn’t allow movies starring Pakistani artistes to be released. Its threat came after the terrorist attack in Uri, in which 19 jawans were martyred – and for which the Lashkar-e-Taiba claimed responsibility on Tuesday.
Pakistani distributors and exhibitors had been thinking about lifting their self-imposed ban on Indian movies after Ae Dil Hai Mushkil and Shivaay were issued No-Objection Certificates by Pakistan’s commerce ministry, PTI reported yesterday. The ban was a response to the Indian Motion Pictures Producers’ Association’s seeking to ban Pakistani artists and technicians working in India, after last month’s cross-border Uri terror attack.
While Zoraiz Lashari, the chairman of the Pakistani Exhibitors and Distributors Association, said no decision had been taken on removing the ban, a source claimed that screening of Indian films was set to resume on Tuesday, but the terrorist attack in Quetta, Balochistan, had forced a delay, the report said.
Lashari, too, admitted that some plans had been put back after the attack .
Bureau Report
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