The Pakistani authorities have banned the screening of the Bollywood movie Tere Bin Laden, a spoof centred around the Al Qaeda chief, fearing attacks by militants.
The movie has Pakistani model and singer Ali Zafar. The full Pakistani film censor board took this decision on the eve of the film’s global release on Friday.
Ali Zafar said he was disappointed at the decision, and appealed to the Pakistani authorities to review it, saying it had nothing controversial. “It’s just a comedy accomplished with the cooperation of Salman Khan and Karan Johar,” he said. When approached, censor board vice-chairman Masood Elahi said there was no justification for the film’s release under the present circumstances.
Tere Bin Laden is a tongue-in-cheek comedy about an ambitious reporter from Karachi desperate to migrate to the US. His repeated attempts fail as he is not granted a visa by the US authorities.
The reporter then comes across a Bin Laden lookalike and hatches a scheme to produce a fake video of the Al Qaeda chief and sell it to television channels as a scoop. A problem arises when the White House gets involved and sends an overzealous secret agent on Bin Laden’s trail.