Pakistanis may not be able to watch film on bin Laden hunt Zero Dark Thirty

Islamabad, Jan 27: Pakistanis will be unable to watch Zero Dark Thirty in theatres as distributors have decided against importing the film on the hunt for Osama bin Laden due to security concerns and fears of upsetting the powerful security establishment.As the film by Oscar-winning director Kathryn Bigelow racks up award nominations and is rolled out in other countries in region, Pakistani distributors said they were unwilling to acquire the movie because of its unflattering references to the military and the ISI."No one has imported it. Some films just don't have commercial potential. It would be unviable for us to import Zero Dark Thirty," Nadeem Mandviwala, one of Pakistan's leading film distributors, told PTI.Others in the film business said they had learnt the hard way that it would never be easy getting any film with a reference to bin Laden past Pakistan's fastidious censor board."Look at the case of Tere bin Laden, the comedy starring Ali Zafar. The subject was such that we had to go through so many ministries and the censor board, and it was finally never released," said Mohsin Yaseen, the general manager for marketing for Cinepax, Pakistan's first multiplex chain.Zero Dark Thirty tackles what is still a "touchy subject" for Pakistani audiences, and distributors decided to "keep away from it", Yaseen said."It would not be feasible for us to screen it in Pakistan," he said.Though filmed in India, Zero Dark Thirty is largely set in Pakistan and tracks the CIA's decade-long hunt for the world's most wanted man.Bin Laden was finally tracked to a compound located a stone's throw from the elite Pakistan Military Academy in Abbottabad, just 120 km from Islamabad, and killed in a unilateral American military raid on May 2, 2011.The raid embarrassed the security establishment and the ISI, which were criticised by lawmakers and the public for failing to detect bin Laden's presence in Pakistan for five years and to prevent the mission by the US Navy SEALS. Under these circumstances, distributors are willing to take the risk of investing in Zero Dark Thirty.Yaseen said distributors were wary after their experiences with Tere bin Laden."That film was expected to do business worth 200,000 dollars in Pakistan and a lot of people lost money," he said.Though Zero Dark Thirty will not be coming to the big screen, pirated DVDs of the film are easily available in most cities across Pakistan, including Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.The owner of a shop dealing in DVDs said there was a huge demand for the film."Everyone wants to watch it because the bin Laden episode is still fresh in people's minds," he said.Others illegally downloaded the movie from the internet but some viewers complained about inaccuracies in its depiction of Pakistan.Farrukh Khan Pitafi, a TV anchor, wrote on Twitter that he was "miffed" with the film's "conscious effort to show camels in big cities, obsession with rickshaws, burqas (and) men speaking in Arabic".Some viewers also expressed concern about the CIA's use of torture to extract information from suspects as depicted in the movie.

Pakistanis may not be able to watch film on bin Laden hunt Zero Dark Thirty

Islamabad, Jan 27: Pakistanis will be unable to watch Zero Dark Thirty in theatres as distributors have decided against importing the film on the hunt for Osama bin Laden due to security concerns and fears

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