Blasts, caution force `Jo Bole...' out of theatres

New Delhi, May 24 (IANS): Barring pockets of eastern India, Sunny Deol-starrer "Jo Bole So Nihaal" has been taken off theatres all over the country in the wake of bomb blasts in two cinema halls screening the movie here.

In most towns and cities, theatre owners decided to stop the show on their own or after authorities advised them fearing a repeat of the Sunday night bombings in New Delhi that killed one man and left some 60 people injured.

The panic set in immediately as news of the Sunday incidents were reported. By Monday, the film, objected to by a section of the Sikhs as offensive to Sikhism, had been pulled out.

The states where the screening has almost wholly stopped include Karnataka, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal as well as the cities of Chennai, Ranchi, Bhubaneswar, Hyderabad, Rajkot, Shimla, Chandigarh and parts of Ahmedabad.

Theatre owners in both New Delhi and parts of Mumbai have also played it safe by deciding to stop its screening.

Surprisingly, one state where the authorities have told the cinema owners that there is nothing to worry is Bihar.

Some Sikh groups have demanded that "Jo Bole..." be banned, saying its title and some scenes showing a Sikh man being chased by scantily clad women had offended their religious sentiments.

Patna District Magistrate Subodh Kumar said he had directed the police to maintain a vigil in and around the Mona theatre that is still showing the movie.

On Monday, the police checked the theatre with sniffer dogs. But that only sparked needless panic.

In Orissa, except for one movie house in Bhubaneswar, the film is still playing in other cities.

"We were apprehensive and so stopped screening," the manager of Sriya Talkies, Rabindra Sahu, told IANS. The movie was also attracting good crowds at Durga and Samrat theatres in Cuttack.

Both the Liberty and Satyam cinemas in Delhi - where the explosions took place Sunday evening - are yet to be operational.

A plumber, Sitaram, was killed in the blast at Liberty. Some of the injured are still in hospitals.

"Jo Bole..." has also been withdrawn from theatres in New Delhi, including at the chain of PVR halls.

The movie met with a similar fate in Hyderabad and Lucknow. Theatres withdrew it following advice from the police and distributors.

Bangalore Police Commssioner S. Marisamy said: "The screening has been stopped indefinitely."

The exit of the movie from theatres has led to a boom in CD sales of the movie in Punjab, Haryana and Chandigarh, police said.

In nearly half a dozen theatres in Haryana, the film was withdrawn only Monday, a day after the Delhi blasts.

Protests were witnessed in different cities in Punjab when the film was released in theatres May 13.

"We have decided to stop the screening (from today) in the best interests of our customers," said Atul Bhatnagar, a senior marketing official of Adlabs said in Mumbai.

"The film was, in any case, not generating much revenues on the box office. The revenue collection in the first week itself was very average. So, we thought it would be a prudent move to pull it down."

Other multiplexes like Inox, Fun Republic and G-7 have also decided not to screen "Joe bole....".

Police sources say a majority of theatre owners in Pune have cancelled the screening despite being assured of enhanced security arrangements at the cinema halls.

The film is, however, being screened uninterrupted in over 20 cinema halls across Mumbai, most of which are single-screen theatres.

In Chennai, after the police advised theatres to take off the movie, one hall owner moaned: "When there is no ban, why did the police ask us to stop screening? They should have tightened security at the theatre and not stopped screening."

N.R. Pachisia, producer of "Jo Bole So Nihaal", said the protesting groups wanted the hero's name changed and certain sequences removed or re-shot.

"Why should I, when the courts have said no one has any authority to prevent the film from being screened? My film has lost so much money already I can't afford to invest in changes."

(With inputs from Baldev Chauhan, Jaideep Sarin, Harish Menon, Imran Khan, Nityanand Shukla, Sharat Pradhan, Jitendra Dash, Mohammed Shafeeq, Sumeet Chatterjee, Ashish Mehta, Fakir Balaji, Sanu George and Papri Sri Raman.)

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