Shamoon Abbasi’s ‘Durj’ releases worldwide, complete ban on the film in Pakistan

Shamoon Abbasi’s film ‘Durj’, has been released worldwide here on Friday (today), and is still banned by censor boards across Pakistan.

The actor had recently shared the release date of his film on his Facebook account, saying that the film will hit cinemas worldwide on October 11 and in Pakistan it would be released on October 18.

The censor boards across the country have imposed a complete ban on the film but have not issued any statement on why the film has been banned.

Earlier in an Instagram post, Ismail said, “(Durj) based on true events about the heinous crime of cannibalism occurred in Pakistan and various parts of the world in the past, is shaping up to be a big hit despite being one of the darkest mainstream movies to hit screens in years.”

The actor had also said that multiple stars had turned down his offer to work in the films due to high temperatures in shoot locations and mountain scenes in the film.

We would like to address the prime minister of Pakistan@ImranKhanPTI

To look into the matter and help us thru the process of obtaining a clearance certificate from islamabad censor board as punjab and Sindh had cleared the film previously and issued certificates#supportDurj pic.twitter.com/dlPAOfg5mV

— Shamoon Abbasi official (@shamoonAbbasi) October 7, 2019

Shamoon Abbasi told that the film was initially cleared by film censor boards in both Punjab and Sindh, but rejected by the federal censor board.

“Suddenly, something happened; [the clearances from Punjab and Sindh] got revoked and the ones pending were put on hold. This is what we know for now and definitely, we will have to counter the process”, he said.

Abbasi is unsure what could have been objectionable in the film, which is based on the true story of a pair of brothers who dug up over 100 graves and cannibalized the corpses.

He says the objection would be more understandable had there been a unanimous rejection from all four provincial censor boards as well as the federal censor board based in Islamabad.

#DURJ is not an anti state or anti religion film at all and simply depicts the subject of mental illness in a few people that tend to go to certain extents to commit crimes, it's a global fact we can't hide it..

DURJ is not gruesome or vulgar#supportDurj pic.twitter.com/qYpiTJB5VX

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— Shamoon Abbasi official (@shamoonAbbasi) October 7, 2019

Shamoon Abbasi admitted that he and his team had not planned on releasing Durj in Pakistan at all, but decided to go ahead after receiving an overwhelming response when international release dates were announced.

He quoted, “I said it will be released [in Pakistan], but honestly, we had a hunch that it could be a problem. But when it came to the censor board and — apart from two minor mute scenes — it was cleared, and we thought everything is fine because the film doesn’t have that sort of blood and gore.”

Once a film is rejected clearance for release, there is a process in place to appeal the decision. Abbasi hopes it will work in his favor.