As claimed by several Indian websites, the movie has been banned in Pakistan owing to it showing the country in a poor light. Neerja is a movie based on Indian flight attendant Neerja Bhanot, who was killed by terrorists attempting to hijack the Pan Am FLight 73 in 1986 at Karachi airport. The New Delh-New York flight was attacked by terrorists and Neerja shot dead as she tried to save the lives of passengers.
However, what was unusual about the whole episode was how the film had been banned from the country and wasn’t even sent to the censor board. According to the Central Board of Film Censors chief Mobasher Hasan, the decision to not allow the movie to be imported into the Islamic Republic was taken by the information and commerce ministry.
Stating that PEMRA had been specifically asked by the information and commerce ministry not to broadcast the movie on cable channels in Pakistan, Mobasher said, “The film was never brought to us for censorship”.
IMGC Executive Director Abid Rasheed said there were some anti-Pakistan elements portrayed in the movie and that Muslims were not shown in a positive light in the film.
“This might not have gone down well with local audiences,” he said.
Pakistan had earlier also banned Bollywood flicks such as Ek Tha Tiger, Haider and Phantom.
