Punjab Information Secretary Ali Nawaz Malik clarified on Friday that ‘Barbie’ movie was not banned in Punjab, but its screening was not being allowed for now as an approval from the censor board was awaited.

Barbie’s box-office debut began in parts of Asia, including Pakistan, on July 21 (today).

“The movie’s exhibition has not been allowed [in Punjab] as it has been sent to Dubai for a censorship review. The censor board will review the movie ‘Barbie’ and decide whether it should be played in cinemas or not,” Malik told Dawn.com.

According to him, relevant authorities were waiting for the reviewed copy of the movie and the process would take some days to complete.

Dawn.com had approached the official for a clarification after Twitter was abuzz with reports of the film being banned in Punjab for “showing pro-LGBTQ content”.

Meanwhile, two prominent cinemas in Lahore, Cue and Cine Star, had no shows scheduled for the movie on their websites at the time of the publishing of this report. But Universal Cinemas had shows listed for the movie.

The fantasy comedy film about the famous doll, directed by Greta Gerwig, stars Margot Robbie and Ryan Gosling. It is expected to rake in $100 million from US theatres over the weekend. To mostly positive reviews, it had scored a 90 per cent rating on Rotten Tomatoes and 81 on Meta Critic.

Previously, Vietnam banned the movie from cinemas over scenes with a map showing China’s claims to territory in the South China Sea.

Additional input from Reuters