Pakistan’s Punjab Barbie Movie Screening Stopped, Released After Dialogue Modification

Due to “objectionable content,” screenings of the awaited Hollywood film Barbie were temporarily suspended in Pakistan’s Punjab province. After some dialogue was removed, the movie was later shown in theatres.

On Friday, July 21, Barbie released in theatres all over the world. In numerous Asian nations, including Pakistan and India, the film was released. Margot Robbie plays the iconic doll wheras Ryan Gosling plays her boyfriend Ken.

When the Punjab Film Censor Board failed to give a No-Objection Certificate (NOC) in this regard, rumours about Barbie being banned in the province of Punjab started to circulate online. Some even claimed on social media that the movie was cut short in the middle and they were instructed to receive a refund for their tickets.

Major cinemas in Lahore, the provincial capital, such as the Cue Cinemas, Cine Star and Universal Cinemas, were not screening the movie, fuelling further speculations of a possible ban.

But, sources told The Express Tribune that the movie was not banned in Punjab province and the censor board had issued an NOC for it on Thursday.

But the censor board demanded that the four words “promoting homosexuality” should be beeped or excised and this did not go down well with HKC Entertainment, the local distributors of Barbie in Pakistan.

On Saturday morning, a person from the censor board said the distributor ultimately agreed to make the modifications and the movie was released to theatres and tickets were available across Punjab province.

Interestingly, Barbie was running without any cuts in Sindh and Islamabad Capital Territory.

In Pakistan, which has a Muslim majority, homosexuality is against the law, and films featuring LGBTQ+ content are subject to censorship since provincial censor boards see it as a breach of the nation’s social and cultural norms.

The movie Zindagi Tamasha was outlawed in 2019 after its director was charged with blasphemy by a far-right religious organisation for the portrayal of a religious man in the movie.

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