The battle over the theatrical release of Sarmad Khoosat’s socio-drama Zindagi Tamasha continued today, with the director’s father and veteran actor Irfan Khoosat filing a petition on Monday in a Lahore court against TLP, the main agitator against the film, for “unlawfully harassing pressurizing and blackmailing” the makers. Additionally, in an important move, the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has decided today to intervene, and the film’s release is now likely to be delayed by over a week.
The Ministry of Information and Broadcasting has now decided to have the film re-screened for board members, at which a representative of TLP and the ministry will be present. In light of this arrangement, the fringe group has decided to call off its protests against the film, scheduled for tomorrow. Reports suggest that the film will be screened only if it is approved by the representatives of TLP and the government.
https://twitter.com/KhoosatSarmad/status/1218883372375838721
Interestingly, despite being cleared twice already by CBFC and the provincial censor boards, the film had not been issued a censor certificate so far. That is now likely to happen in the following week, in the scenario where the film is green-lit by MOIB and TLP. In this regard, the CBFC has specifically instructed the provincial boards to delay the completion of the certification process till February. Meanwhile, legal proceedings for the petition filed by Irfan Khoosat are already underway, with the court hearing the opening arguments today. Khoosat has also fired for an injunction from the court to give an authoritative warning against the group interfering with the film’s release.
Previously, the director had drawn the Prime-minister’s attention towards what he called a ‘campaign of interference and harassment’ against his film, and later also tweeted another note to all Pakistanis where he stated that he is considering not releasing the film at all.
With the intervention of the MOIB, we hope that the controversy and intrigue behind the release of the film shall be settled soon. Stay tuned to Galaxy Lollywood to follow the latest developments on the release of Zindagi Tamasha!
