Guns fall silent but new film makes waves abroad

UK audiences are flocking to see the romantic love story of an Indian Sikh girl who falls in love with a Pakistani Muslim boy, but last minute obstacles mean the film cannot yet be shown in cinemas in India and Pakistan.

The guns are silent across the Line of Control in Kashmir, but delays in releasing Ladki Punjaben Hai (The Girl is Punjabi) show how the celluloid divide between India and Pakistan is still as wide and controversial as ever.

The film is currently being examined by the film censor boards of India and Pakistan and now, barring some other last minute objections, producers hope it will be released in the sub continent 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 who won hearts and minds in Ek Choti Si Love Story.

Nair's involvement notwithstanding, 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's a love story, more about culture, there's no fighting or anything like that", Khan explains. "But we were filming at a time when there was a lot of tension between India and Pakistan, so we had to arrange some of the shots 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 e-mail campaign saying the film was against the Sikhs, which it isn't, and even letters to the newspapers saying how a film like this would damage community relations", reveals Khan.

"You have these e-groups where one sends an e-mail and before you know it, it has mushroomed into a bacteria that can't be controlled with 5,000 e-mails.

"One day I had more than 50 e-mails 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 film."

In a bid to end the controversy, at least as far as the Sikhs were concerned, Khan invited 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 for some reason 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 sub continent diaspora can make an independent judgement on whether it is worth watching.