Director and producer Syed Noor has changed the story of his upcoming film ‘Larki Punjaban’ which came under a lot of critisism from the Sikh community. The film is expected to be released in Europe and India on Eid. It would be the first Lollywood film to be shown in India. Shashilal Nair is releasing it in Delhi. The movie is expected to be released in Pakistan four weeks later.
The budget of love story ‘Larki Punjaban’ is said to have crossed over Rs 50 million. It has been shot in Pakistan and Malaysia. Afzal M. Khan is the producer of the film who along with Syed Noor has formed the Paragon Entertainment Group. 'Larki Punjaban is the first production of this group. The cast includes Saima, Shamyl Khan, Babar Ali, Habib, Naghma, Bahar, Rashid Mahmood, Irfan Khusat and some Malaysian artistes. The music and lyrics are by Zain. Syed Noor has written the screen play and dialogue while the story has been written by Rukhsana Noor.
Actor and chief organiser of the World Muslim Sikh Federation, Raja Riaz said that Syed Noor held a show for some Sikh leaders and their families in London a few days back. He showed them the clippings of the film and the changes made in it. "The event was attended by Manmohan Singh Khalsa, President World Muslim Sikh Federation and 10 other Sikh leaders and their families. Some scenes of the film were reshot to pacify the Sikh community. The film shows that friendship develops between two computer programmers - a Sikh girl Preetam (played by Saima), who comes to Nankana Sahib with her family, and Shamyl Khan, a Muslim youth. The two fall in love. All hell breaks loose when Preetam’s family finds out about the love affair.
They take her to Chandigarh and later send her to Malaysia where Shamyl who is in touch with Preetam on internet also comes. The change is that now it is shown in the end that Preetam was originally Muslim but had been brought up in the house of Sikhs. This change has been well received by Sikhs as Preetam is now not shown changing her religion."
“Sikh community had criticised the film a lot and warned that they would not allow the film to be exhibited in England. London-based weeklies ‘Pardes’ and ‘Sahib’ had launched a campaign against the movie. But now Syed Noor has won over the Sikh community by making this change, Raja Riaz said.” The change in the story was also confirmed by a cast member.
Syed Noor was not available for comment. He was still in London on Sunday and is expected to return in a few days time.
Rukhsana Noor while talking to this scribe said "we showed clippings of the film to Manmohan Singh and some other Sikh leaders when they visited Pakistan.
I do not know whether Shahjee showed them some other portions of the film in London. I would not like to disclose the ending of the film but we have not changed anything. The girl is shown brought up by a Sikh family and she is a practising Sikh. Many films are made in India which show a Muslim girl playing heroine but there are no protests by Muslims. If we have made a film which shows a Sikh girl in love with a Muslim youth, they are raising such hue and cry."
