Here's why Aamir Khan refused to release Dangal in Pakistan

At the cost of losing out a business to the tune of Rs 10 crore actor Aamir Khan has refused to release his blockbuster film Dangal in Pakistan. Pakistani distributors reached out to Aamir Khan to get Dangal released in the neigbouring state. Aamir Khan reportedly agreed to this. But the problem arose when the film was screened before the Pakistan certification board. The equivalent of the Indian censor board, it made a strange demand which seemed impossible for Khan to fulfill. There are two particular scenes in the film that the Pakistani censor board had a problem with, a leading news website reported.

These two scenes refer to the one showing Indian flag and the another one in which the national anthem plays when Geeta Phogat played by Fatima Sana Shaikh wins a Gold medal at the Delhi Commonwealth Games. These two scenes didn’t go down well with the Pakistani censor board and they wanted it chopped. However, the paper reports Aamir Khan said no to this. He is reported to have expressed his unhappiness over these suggested cuts simply for the reason that the film was a sport biopic and not a jingoistic film. There were no references to Pakistan or any other country for that matter. So, chopping the scene that depicts the sentiment of a particular Indian would take the essence of the film away. Apparently, Aamir Khan, who produced the film will lose out on a business of anything between Rs 10 to 12 crore.

Dangal is the highest grossing Hindi film and has earned close Rs 400 crore. The film is based on the real life story of Mahavir Phogat from Haryana and his two daughters Geeta and Babita who fight gender stereotypes to become world-class wrestlers.

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