The much-anticipated Barbie movie has been banned in Punjab, according to online reports. The Punjab Film Censor Board denied the film’s NOC (No Objection Certificate) due to its “objectionable” content, according to a tweet.
The tweet proclaiming “Barbie has been banned in Pakistan’s Punjab region for showing pro-LGBTQ content” rapidly went viral. The NOC has been withheld by the Punjab censor board till the ‘objectionable’ material is changed.
Further feeding such speculations is the fact that big Lahore theatres like Cue Theatres, Cine Star, and Universal Cinemas are not showing the film. Confusion and queries regarding the Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling film have arisen while Christopher Nolan’s Oppenheimer is playing in all the theatres named.
“Wait a minute! A user wrote, “I just bought my tickets.” Another person vented their anger, saying, “Hope they ban Oppenheimer for ‘nudity’ too.”
Media contacted Vasay Chaudhary, vice chairman of the Punjab Film Censor Board, for an explanation. But Chaudhry didn’t reply until this story was written. However, Media reports that sources have claimed that Barbie is not “banned” in Punjab and that the Punjab Film Censor Board. Even gave the go-ahead for its release yesterday.
HKC Entertainment, the local distributor of Barbie in Pakistan, was dismayed to learn that the board had insisted. The four words be beeped or otherwise removed before the film could be shown to the public. The Express Tribune’s attempts to contact its local representative went unanswered. Hammad Chaudhry, the CEO of the company, could not be reached for comment prior to publication of this report.
Both Sindh and the Islamabad Capital Territory (ICT) have been thriving since the release of the film.
The plot is still unfolding.