Following the controversy surrounding Adipurush, Pokhara joins Kathmandu in banning all Indian films

In response to the Adipurush dialogue controversy, the Pokhara Metropolitan City joined the Kathmandu Metropolis in enforcing a ban on the screening of Indian films.

The mayor of Kathmandu, the capital of Nepal, Balendra Shah, had imposed a ban on Indian films earlier on Sunday evening. Dhanraj Acharya, the mayor of Pokhara, addressed letters to three theatres shortly after the announcement ordering them to stop showing any Indian films.

Following directives from the mayors of both Metropolitan cities, Hindi and Bollywood film screenings have been replaced by Hollywood and Nepali film screenings in both of these locations.

On Sunday night, the Kathmandu Mayor announced a ban on the screening of any Indian films on Facebook ,“Indian film Adipurush had a dialogue claiming Janaki was India’s daughter which is objectionable and we had given three days’ ultimatum to correct it. There is no doubt that it is the first duty of every government, government agency, non-governmental sector and Nepali citizen to protect the national interest by keeping Nepal’s freedom, independence and self-respect intact,” the Kathmandu mayor penned in the Facebook post.

The T-Series wrote to the Nepali Mayor shortly after the news of the screening ban in the nation’s capital, asserting that it was “never intentional or deliberate to cause any disharmony for anyone.” While defending the contentious dialogue, the business added that it did so in an effort to honour women by quoting the precise passage that the Nepali mayor took issue with.

There is a line in Adipurush that reads, “Janaki is a daughter of India.” Nevertheless, the dialogue was removed in Nepal when the country’s censor board objected to it and halted the film’s release on Friday.