PAKISTAN: Pakistan orders Indian film icon off billboards

Authorities in Karachi have ordered the removal of billboards showing film star Amitabh Bachchan in front of Pakistan's flag to promote a telephone quiz contest opening on the country's independence day. "Amitabh's picture is not an issue, it can be posted or pasted anywhere. It was a bit concerning issue... the picture being with the flag of Pakistan," Syed Mustafa Kamal, chief of the City District Government Karachi told Reuters Television on Saturday (August 12). Another city official said the place was reserved only for Pakistani heroes. Telefun, a private call-in entertainment company, had posted the giant billboards round the city to promote a call-in quiz contest along the lines of an Indian television version of the U.S. quiz show "Who Wants To Be A Millionaire" hosted by Bachchan. The billboards said the show would be aired from August 14 -- the day Pakistan celebrates independence from Britain and partition from India. The hoardings were immediately removed from streets after the orders, and new ones, without flag, were posted. "We ordered them to remove whatever hoardings they had posted on streets. They have removed them. Amitabh's pictures are still there (without Pakistan flag). I said there is no harm in it (the picture) as many other pictures are also there," Kamal said. Abdul Qadir, Telefun's marketing manager, said the company had complied with the authorities' directive, adding it was a mistake. Qadir said Telefun had used Bachchan's image because of the similar format of the quiz. "In our campaign, we had used Amitabh's picture because he has become a symbol of famous quiz known as 'Kaun Bane Ga Karorepati, and our's is 'Aao Banen Karorepati", said Qadir. Bachchan is regarded as the most famous living Indian movie star and is popular on both sides of the border, although there is a long-standing ban on screening of Indian films in cinema halls in Pakistan. Indian films are easily available, however, on pirated CDs and are also aired on cable television channels in Pakistan.

ITN Source | August 17, 2006

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