Divided in reel life too!

The guns have fallen silent across the Line of Control in Kashmir, but the celluloid divide between India and Pakistan is still as wide and controversial as ever.

Despite their best efforts, delays continue to dog the release of Ladki Punjaben Hai (The girl is Punjabi) in Pakistani and Indian cinemas.

The innocent love story about an Indian Sikh girl who meets a Pakistani Muslim boy  has just been released in 22 UK cinemas, but all kinds of obstacles have cropped up to prevent or delay its release in the subcontinent.

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The film is being examined by each country's film censor boards and, now, barring some other last minute objections, it should be released in the subcontinent on December 25.

Althought the film has an all-Pakistani cast, including newcomer Shamil Khan and established actress Saima, it also has
Indian representation through associate director Shashilal Nair of Ek Choti Si Love Story.

Notwithstanding Nair's involvement, the film's British-Pakistani producer Afzal Khan, was unable to get permission to
shoot scenes in India. As a compromise, he and senior producer Syed Noor took their cast to Malaysia for the
on-location filming. "It is a love story, more about culture. There is no figthing or anything like that," Khan told rediff.com.

"But we were filming at a time when there was a lot of tension between India and Pakistan, so some shots had to be filmed in Malaysia."

When the film was about to be released in the UK a whispering campaign started within the Sikh community that the film should be boycotted because it was anti Sikh. "It was an email campaign saying the film was against the Sikhs, which it isn't. Even letters to the newspapers saying how a film like this would damage community relations," reveals Khan.

"You have these egroups where one sends an email and before you know it, its mushroomed into a bacteria that can't be controlled with 5,000 emails. One day I had over 50 emails from Sikh people warning me this was going to happen and that was going to happen. I replied to those who talked sensibly. I have no strong political beliefs, the idea was simply to make a commercial love story."

In a bid to end the controversy, at least as far as Sikhs are concerned, Khan invited the Sikh community leaders in London to a preview. When they were told it was a love story and there was no question of using the film to belittle either India or Pakistan, they announced they had no objections.

Last minute objections have also been overcome in Pakistan where questions were raised about  Indian film director Shashilal Nair's name appearing on the poster credits.

"I don't want to show anybody in a bad light, I would not want to be part of a propaganda backed film," says Khan.

If the film fails to appear on Indian and Pakistani screens, he hopes to show it across Europe, as well as in North America, where the subcontinent diaspora can make an independent judgement on whether it is wotth watching.

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