Barbie movie was not being released in Punjab, and the fans were questioning why it was not being screened in Punjab. On Friday evening, Punjab cinema owners pleasantly surprised moviegoers by resuming screenings of Barbie and making tickets available once more.
Certain users even shared screenshots from Universal Cinema, informing customers that the issues raised by the Censor Board have been resolved, and the movie is now being shown with tickets being accommodated.
Following a brief investigation on Saturday morning, a representative from the Punjab Film Censor Board revealed that the distributor has now agreed to censor the objectionable words in Barbie movie. This decision came about as the words were deemed to be “promoting homosexuality.”
Prior to this development, credible sources informed The Express Tribune that Barbie was never officially “banned” in Punjab, and in fact, the Punjab Film Censor Board had issued a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for the movie on Thursday.
Nevertheless, the board made a demand for four specific words to be either beeped or removed from the film before it could be publicly screened. However, this request did not go down well with HKC Entertainment, the local distributor of Barbie movie in Pakistan.
Despite attempts to reach out, the company’s local representative did not return any calls or respond to messages from The Express Tribune. Furthermore, the CEO of HKC Entertainment, Hammad Chaudhry, remained unresponsive and unreachable.
The news about the eagerly awaited Barbie movie facing a ban in Punjab started circulating on Friday morning through a tweet. According to the tweet, the Punjab Film Censor Board refused to issue a No Objection Certificate (NOC) for the movie, citing concerns about “objectionable” content.
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The announcement gained rapid traction on Twitter, indicating that Barbie has been banned in Pakistan’s Punjab region due to its portrayal of pro-LGBTQ content. The Punjab censor board stated that they would withhold the NOC for the movie until the alleged “objectionable” content is removed.
Upon conducting a straightforward Google search, it became evident that significant Lahore cinemas like Cue Cinemas, Cine Star, and Universal Cinemas were not featuring the Barbie movie. This added to the speculations surrounding a potential ban on the movie.
In contrast, Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer was being shown in all the mentioned theatres, causing confusion and raising questions among moviegoers regarding the fate of the Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling-starrer. It’s worth noting that the Barbie film has been running successfully in Sindh and Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) without any edits or alterations.
