Producers should be allowed to release films to avoid financial losses: IMPPA president

Indian Motion Picture Producers Association (IMPPA) president T.P. Aggarwal on Friday disagreed with the decision of the Cinema Owners and Exhibitors Association of India and the Censor Board not to allow the screening of movies starring Pakistani actors and said that the producers should move the court in this regard so that they do not suffer huge financial losses.

"Yesterday, some association people from the theatre was with me, so I was just telling them, as IMPPA is also requesting the producers not to employ the Pakistani artists in future till the relations between Pakistan and India gets better. We have also written to the Prime Minister and other Departments that they should not issue them working visa till the relation becomes cordial between both countries," Aggarwal told ANI.

"We request the theatre associations also that they should allow the pictures to be released and for that they should either go to court and they should ask the court to give them the protection from the police. I think the matter should be solved. They should release the pictures," he added.

Days before Karan Johar's widely- anticipated film 'Ae Dil Hai Mushkil' is to be released, a theatre owners' body has requested members in three states not to screen the films with Pakistani actors. The Cinema Owners and Exhibitors Association of India and the Censor Board have, however, emphasized that it is not a ban.

"We have decided that these films (with Pakistani actors) should not be screened. This is based on public sentiment over the past few months," Nitin Datar of the association said.

Johar's film starring Ranbir Kapoor and Aishwarya Rai Bachchan also features Pakistan's Fawad Khan, who has a notable fan following in India.

The decision comes amid tension between India and Pakistan over last month's Uri terror attack in which 19 soldiers were killed.

This was followed by India's surgical strikes along the Line of Control (LoC) on September 21.