Daily Times

Bollywood actor Johan Abraham said his upcoming movie, ‘Parmanu-The Story of Pokhran’, about India’s nuclear test in 1998, is pro-Indian, but not anti-Pakistan.

On Friday, at the film’s trailer launch, the team was asked about plans for the release of ‘Parmanu’ in Pakistan, to which the director Abhishek Sharma replied jokingly, “It’s coming in 300 screens in Pakistan”.

The ‘Dhoom’ actor then said on a serious note, “To answer that question, this is not an anti-Pakistan film; it is a very pro-India film. So, we are very clear this is a film about India and we are going to celebrate this.

“We are not here to throw mud on anybody’s face, we want to keep it clean”

“If we start thinking about other markets, we would be compromising on our film. We wanted to tell the story as it is.”

John further added, “We are not here to throw mud on anybody’s face, we want to keep it clean. We want to keep the controversy aside. We are confident about the film and the subject that we have chosen.”

Latelly, Alia Bhatt’s film, ‘Raazi’ was banned from releasing in Pakistan because of ‘controversial content and negative portrayal of Pakistan’. The local distributors refused to purchase the film referring to its controversial content on the India-Pakistan 1971 war. “It is disappointing to see that films on controversial subjects are being produced in India time and again,” A senior representative of a distribution company shared.

“All our distributors are well aware about Alia’s role in Raazi and so, no one is willing to purchase the film. Patriotism is another reason for distributors not being pushed about buying the film. Indian producers should know that all our distributors have unanimously decided to boycott such controversial films.”

‘Parmanu’ is scheduled to release on 15th May.

Published in Daily Times, May 14^th 2018.