After months of uncertainty following the India-Pakistan conflict in May, Abir Gulaal, the much-anticipated Indian film marking Fawad Khan\u2019s Bollywood comeback, has finally locked in its global release date for August 29.<\/p>\n
However, following in the footsteps of Sardaar Ji 3, the film will not be released in India, reported the Hindustan Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n The decision to skip an Indian release comes in the wake of strained bilateral relations between the two countries after India blamed Pakistan<\/a> for the Pahalgam terror attack in May \u2014 an accusation Pakistan repeatedly denied \u2014 and launched Operation Sindoor, to which Pakistan retaliated by launching Operation Bunyan-un-Marsoos.<\/p>\n The fallout renewed the ban<\/a> on Pakistani artists working in India, forcing the film to scrap its original May 9 release there.<\/p>\n This development was especially bittersweet for fans, given Abir Gulaal marked Khan\u2019s first Indian film in nine years. The teaser and songs had received a warm response across the border before the political climate shifted, prompting loud boycott calls from Indian audiences and commentators.<\/p>\n Vani Kapoor, who stars opposite Khan in the film and faced heavy online criticism for her association with the project, addressed the backlash during a recent media appearance. \u201cThere\u2019s so much toxicity and hate\u2026 I keep hearing \u2018boycott this one, cancel that one.\u2019 Mat karo yaar (don\u2019t do this), have room and let people be,\u201d she said, according to the Hindustan Times<\/a>.<\/p>\n Her co-star, Ridhi Dogra, also part of the ensemble cast, shared that she signed the project during a time of relative calm between the two nations. \u201cI followed all the laws. Today, I stand by my country and our armed forces, but don\u2019t bully me for something that was legal then,\u201d she stated.<\/p>\n Directed by Aarti S Bagadi, Abir Gulaal follows \u201ctwo wounded souls, brought together by chance, who find solace in each other\u2019s company and gradually develop a profound connection that blossoms into love.\u201d Alongside Khan and Kapoor, the cast includes Lisa Haydon, Farida Jalal, Soni Razdan, Parmeet Sethi and Rahul Vohra.<\/p>\n Produced by Rakesh Sippy, Firuzi Khan and Vivek Aggarwal, the film will now premiere internationally, leaving its Indian release future uncertain.<\/p>\n For fans eager to see Khan back on the big screen, the wait is finally over \u2014 at least for those outside India and Pakistan, since there\u2019s no news on whether the film will get a Pakistan release either. The screening of Indian films is also banned in Pakistan, but some films \u2014\u00a0such as those produced outside of India, such as the recent Sardaar Ji 3 \u2014\u00a0are allowed to screen.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"After months of uncertainty following the India-Pakistan conflict in May, Abir Gulaal, the much-anticipated Indian film marking Fawad…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":62140,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[49,48,361,75],"class_list":{"0":"post-62139","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-celebrities","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-celebrities","11":"tag-entertainment"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62139","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=62139"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/62139\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/62140"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=62139"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=62139"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=62139"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}