KARACHI: An Indian court has issued a stay order halting the release of the Pakistani blockbuster “The Legend of Maula Jatt” in the country, the film’s distributor in Pakistan confirmed on Thursday. 

Released in October 2022, the movie is a reboot of a hyper-masculine Punjabi film that enchanted viewers four decades ago. It has not only won critical acclaim but also done incredibly well by breaking all previous records at the local and international box office for Pakistani cinema. It stars Pakistani A-listers Fawad Khan, Mahira Khan and Hamza Ali Abbasi in lead roles. 

The film’s director Bilal Lashari announced in August that the film would be released in theaters across India on Oct. 2, triggering excitement among movie buffs in both countries. 

“The Punjab court has issued a stay order on the release of the film [in India],” film distributor Nadeem Mandviwalla told Arab News. 

“It is alleged that the film has been stopped through a stay order which was applied by the Information & Broadcasting Ministry of India.”

Mandviwalla said he was in the dark about the exact reason why the movie’s release was halted in India. 

“I have no idea [why the release has been stopped],” he said. “We are also trying to find out what was the content of their appeal to the court.”

Indian politician Raj Shrikant Thackeray, chairman of the right-wing Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS) party, had earlier posted on social media platform X that he would not allow the Pakistani blockbuster to be screened in Maharashtra theaters where his party holds sway. 

Tensions between Pakistan and India have led to minimal cultural exchanges between the two states. India banned Pakistani artists from working in their country after the Uri terror attack in 2016 while Pakistan has put a blanket ban on the release of Indian films across the country.

Both countries have fought three wars since gaining independence in 1947, two of them over the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir. Political tensions between the two nuclear-armed neighbors continue to dominate their relations.