Fighter Ban Extends To UAE After Other Gulf Countries Despite Re-edits: Reports

Fighter hit the big screen worldwide on January 25, coinciding with the Republic Day holiday. Hrithik Roshan and Deepika Padukone headline the film which is directed by Siddharth Anand. The aerial-action film has been doing a modest business at the box office, not just in India but overseas as well. However, the action flick faced a setback when it was banned in all Gulf countries barring the UAE. As per new reports, the film will not be released in the UAE even after re-edits. 

Will Fighter release in Gulf countries? 

Upon release, Fighter was banned in all Gulf countries except the UAE. However, now it is being reported that the film will not release in the UAE as well. It was earlier reported that the Hrithik Roshan starrer will release in UAE soon but now the same has been stopped. 

While there is no official confirmation on the same, reports suggest that the advanced bookings for the film was banned in the UAE as well. Confirming the news, industry tracker Sreedhar Pillai took to his X handle and wrote, "Fighter no release in #UAE ! The advance booking of the film removed from all chains in #UAE. So No #Fighter in entire gulf! “ As per new reports, the re-editted version of the film will also continue to face ban in the gulf countires. 

Why was Fighter banned in Gulf countries? 

According to the film industry tracker, who said the reason isn't official, claimed that the possibility of the film getting banned could be because of the film's "tonality and branding a particular religion as a terrorist." Though the tracker suggested the supposed reason, he stressed this isn't official.

With the film being banned in the entire Gulf area, it has turned out to be a setback for the makers as the film might lose the business of more than 500k to 1 million dollars.