Box Office: ‘Aiyaary’ not releasing in Pakistan

Neeraj Pandey’s ‘Aiyaary’, which released across India today, will not be hitting cinemas in Pakistan.

As the film is centred around the theme of Indian patriotism, similar to previous Pandey films such as ‘Naam Shabana’ and ‘Baby’, as a result ‘Aiyaary’ failed to receive clearance for release in Pakistan.

Satish Anand, who was to distribute the movie in Pakistan, took to social media to confirm the news, “The film is banned. Its content was disapproved.”

This wasn’t the only trouble Pandey had to deal with in relation to the films release. Due to the crux of the film being based around the Indian army plans to release the film at an earlier date were held back as the Ministry of Defence believed it had to be reviewed to see whether the Indian army was depicted inaccurately and to ensure there was a fair reflection of the army.

In response to all the complications for release of the film, Pandey told DNA, “We had submitted the film to the Central Board of Film Certification (CBFC) on January 19 and didn’t think it would be an issue. Although the MoD had always wanted to watch the film, we had told them to route it via the CBFC. I’ve heard it is a common practice by MoD to watch films that feature characters from the defence forces. But we didn’t know that the back-and-forth would take this long. We had no choice but to delay the release”.

Pandey felt a sense of frustration from the delay of his film, he added “Everyone is too sensitive these days, and add to that the power of social media, which allows anyone to have a say. Only one body should have any say in the film’s release, and that’s CBFC”.

A well recognised cast of ‘Aiyaary’ includes Sidarth Malhotra, Manoj Bajpayee, Pooja Chopra, Rakul Preet, Anupam Kher and Naseeruddin Shah. Bajpayee plays the role of the mentor and Malhotra has the role of playing his protege.

By Taran Patel