LAHORE: The Barbie film’s release has been delayed in Punjab over “objectionable content”, according to officials.

“There will be a full review of the film, and it will be censored where deemed necessary,” Farrukh Mahmood, secretary of the Punjab Film Censor Board, told AFP.

He said that the fantasy-comedy film, which stars Margot Robbie as the famous doll and Ryan Gosling as her boyfriend Ken, will be cleared for screening once the review and censoring process is complete.

The board did not clarify which content was dee­med “objectionable”, or why.

While fans in Punjab will have to wait to watch Barbie, the film was due to be screened from Friday in Islamabad and Sindh, where it was cleared by the respective censor boards.

“I have been looking fo­­r­­ward to watching Barbie for months. It makes no sense that it’s ok to be shown in Karachi or Isla­mabad, but not Lahore,” Nousheen Saad, a resident of Lahore, said.

Films need to be cleared by provincial boards, which censor anything deemed a violation of the country’s social and cultural values.

In November, Joyland — a Cannes prize-winning film and Pakistan’s entry for the 2023 Oscars — was banned by the government for being “clearly repugnant to the norms of decency and morality” of the country.

The film was later cle­ared by the natio­nal censor board after the government ordered a review, but remained banned in Punjab.

In 2019, the film Zindagi Tamasha was banned after its director was accused of blasphemy by a far-right religious party for the movie’s portrayal of a religious man.

Published in Dawn, July 22nd, 2023