List of films banned in Pakistan
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Pakistan started banning films in 1962, with restrictions tightened in 1979 when Zia-ul-Haq implemented an Islamization agenda and an even stricter censorship code.[1] A ban on Indian films (which had been in place since 1965 but was not always strictly enforced) was lifted in 2008, with the compromise that cinemas in Pakistan must equally share screening time between Indian and Pakistani films, but was later enforced again in 2019.[2][3]
2006
| Date | Movie Name | Country | Film Industry | The Reason Banned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2006 | The Da Vinci Code |  |
Hollywood | Banned due to protest by the Christian community in Pakistan.[4] |
2010
| Date | Movie Name | Country | Film Industry | The Reason Banned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2010 | Lahore |  |
Bollywood | Banned as the censor board objected to some dialogues and scenes in the film.[5] |
| 2010 | Tere Bin Laden | |
Bollywood | Banned for fear that the title could be misconstrued by Islamist extremists as a reason to attack.[6][7] |
2011
| Date | Movie Name | Country | Film Industry | The Reason Banned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2011 | Slackistan |  |
Independent | Director refused to make cuts requested by the Central Board of Film Censors. |
| 2011 | The Dirty Picture | |
Bollywood | Banned by authorities.[8] However, it was later cleared for release only a week after the Indian premiere.[9] |
| 2011 | Delhi Belly | |
Bollywood | Not allowed to be screened by the censor board.[10] |
2012
| Date | Movie Name | Country | Film Industry | The Reason Banned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2012 | Ek Tha Tiger | |
Bollywood | It was not released in Pakistan, due to concerns over the portrayal of Pakistan in the film.[11][12] |
| 2012 | Khiladi 786 | |
Bollywood | Renamed as Khiladi for release[13] but promos and ads of the film were banned in Pakistan.[14] |
| 2012 | Agent Vinod | |
Bollywood | For controversial references to the Inter-Services Intelligence spy agency.[15] |
2013
| Date | Movie Name | Country | Film Industry | The Reason Banned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2013 | Bhaag Milkha Bhaag | |
Bollywood | Banned because it depicts Pakistan Sports Authorities using unfair means. It depicts the country in a wrong way.[16] |
| 2013 | Raanjhanaa | |
Bollywood | Banned because the film portrays an image of a Muslim girl (played by Sonam Kapoor) falling in love with a Hindu boy and having an affair with him.[17] |
| 2013 | G.I. Joe: Retaliation | |
Hollywood | Banned due to the film's depiction of Pakistan as an unstable state and the fictional portrayal of a "foreign invasion of Pakistan’s nuclear installations".[18] |
| 2013 | The Line of Freedom | |
British | Banned due to the controversial depiction of its security forces in the Insurgency in Balochistan. Subsequently contributed to a national ban of the Internet Movie Database. |
2014
| Date | Movie Name | Country | Film Industry | The Reason Banned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2014 | Children of War | |
Bollywood | Banned for its portrayal of the 1971 Bangladesh Liberation War contrary to Pakistan's view.[19] |
| 2014 | Haider | |
Bollywood | Banned as it depicts the Kashmir insurgency, a sensitive issue in the country.[20] |
| 2014 | Noah | |
Hollywood | Banned due to the portrayal of Noah by an actor.[21] |
2015
| Date | Movie Name | Country | Film Industry | The Reason Banned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2015 | Calendar Girls | |
Bollywood | Banned by Pakistan due to objections to one of the dialogues in the film.[22][23] |
| 2015 | Phantom | |
Bollywood | Demanded to be banned by Hafiz Saeed's Jamaat-ud-Dawa Archived 2015-08-20 at the Wayback Machine.[24] Phantom is about 2008 Mumbai attacks based on the book Mumbai Avengers by S. Hussain Zaidi.[25] The Lahore High Court banned the movie on 20 August 2015[26] as Government of Pakistan wanted the petition by Hafiz Saeed to be dismissed due to its uselessness and the government doesn't want to be involved unnecessarily because no one in Pakistan asked for NOC to screen the film.[27][28] LHC judge Justice Shahid Bilal Hassan asked the government what it could do to stop the movie CDs from being sold in the market after the ban.[29] |
| 2015 | Baby | |
Bollywood | Banned due to portray of Muslims as terrorists.[30] |
| 2015 | Bangistan | |
Bollywood | A film about two suicide bombers banned by Pakistan's Central Board of Film Censors.[31] |
2016
| Date | Movie Name | Country | Film Industry | The Reason Banned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2016 | Dishoom | |
Bollywood | Banned because the movie talks about an Indian cricketer getting kidnapped before an India and Pakistan match and that caused the country to think it is against Pakistan.[32] |
| 2016 | Udta Punjab | |
Bollywood | Banned due to use of abusive language.[33] |
| 2016 | Shivaay | |
Bollywood | Banned because of India-Pakistan border conflict.[34] |
| 2016 | Ae Dil Hai Mushkil | |
Bollywood | Banned because of India-Pakistan border conflict.[35][36] |
| 2016 | Neerja | |
Bollywood | Banned for allegedly showing the country in a bad light, a fact denied by Sonam Kapoor, who portrays slain flight attendant Neerja Bhanot in the film.[37] |
| 2016 | Ambarsariya | |
Pollywood | Banned due to direct references to Indian intelligence agency R&AW inside the movie.[38] |
2017
| Date | Movie Name | Country | Film Industry | The Reason Banned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2017 | Viceroy's House | |
British | Banned for allegedly misrepresenting Muhammad Ali Jinnah (Founder Of Pakistan). |
| 2017 | Tubelight | |
Bollywood | Banned to prevent hampering the release of local films[39] |
| 2017 | Tiger Zinda Hai | |
Bollywood | The film was not given a No Objection Certificate by the Central Board of Film Censors in Pakistan, stating the reason as "The image of Pakistan and its law enforcement agencies" has been compromised.[40][41] |
| 2017 | Dangal | |
Bollywood | Banned when actor-producer Aamir Khan refused the Pakistan Censor Board's demand to remove scenes with the Indian National Flag and Indian National Anthem.[42] |
| 2017 | Naam Shabana | |
Bollywood | Banned because it portrays Pakistan in "bad taste".[43] |
| 2017 | Jolly LLB 2 | |
Bollywood | Banned because the film makes references to the Kashmir issue.[44] |
| 2017 | Raees | |
Bollywood | Banned due to its "objectionable" content, as "the content undermines Islam, and a specific religious sect, (It also) portrays some Muslims as criminals, wanted persons, and terrorists".[45] |
2018
| Date | Movie Name | Country | Film Industry | The Reason Banned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2018 | Pad Man | |
Bollywood | The Central Board of Film Censors, Pakistan, refused to give a No Objection Certificate to the film and said, "we cannot allow a film whose name, subject, and story are not acceptable yet in our society." They disallowed the Pakistani film distributors IMGC and HKC to purchase the film rights and stated that they were "ruining Islamic traditions, history, and culture."[46][47][48] |
| 2018 | Pari | |
Bollywood | Promotes black magic. |
| 2018 | Raazi | |
Bollywood | Showed an intelligence agent who spied on Pakistan for India. |
| 2018 | Gold | |
Bollywood | For fears regarding the depiction of the Partition of India.[49] |
| 2018 | Veere Di Wedding | |
Bollywood | For depicting obscenity and vulgar dialogues by female characters. |
| 2018 | Mulk | |
Bollywood | The movie shows an Indian Muslim family accused of treason and ties with the Pakistanis.[50] |
| 2018 | Aiyaary | |
Bollywood | Banned for portraying Pakistan in a negative light.[51] |
| 2018 | Race 3 | |
Bollywood | Ban imposed so that four big banner Pakistani films and other smaller regional language releases on Eid do good business without competition from Bollywood movies.[52] |
| 2018 | Parmanu: The Story of Pokhran | |
Bollywood | Banned for references to Pakistan's nuclear tests and establishments. |
2019-present
Since February 2019, Pakistan has banned the screening of all Indian films amid border tensions between the countries.[2][3]
| Date | Movie Name | Country | Film Industry | The Reason Banned |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 2022 | I'll Meet You There | United States |
Hollywood | For "negatively depicting" Muslim and Pakistani culture.[53] |
| 2022 | The Lady of Heaven | United Kingdom |
British | For negatively depicting important Muslim figures and portraying historical inaccuracies.[54][55] |
See also
- Jaal movement, 1954 protest in West Pakistan to ban Indian films
- Maalik (2016 film), Pakistani film banned by the federal government, released after the supreme court intervened