Afghanistan government supports movie piracy by banning Kabul Express

Two days ago, news broke that Kabul Express, in it's third week of release, has been banned by Afghanistan because an ethnic minority of the country has been portrayed in poor light. The good folks at Dawn give us this-

“The film has some sentences which were very offensive towards one of Afghanistan's ethnicities, namely the Hazara,” said Minister of Culture adviser Najib Manalai. “For this reason it has been banned.”

Hazara people are believed to make up about 10 per cent of the Afghan population. A Shia Muslim minority, Hazaras are thought to be descended from remnants of Genghis Khan's invading army and have at times faced persecution.

Banning the movie only makes the Afghan government look like fools because they supported the shooting of the movie in their own country by providing heavy security to the cast and crew. That aside, does banning a movie ever actually work? Publicly banning a movie only draws more attention to it and raises the curiosity of the casual movie-goer. These movies usually end up grossing big at the box office because of this curiosity factor. Look what happened to Gadar when it was banned in some states in India.

News is coming out now that, despite the ban, pirated copies of Kabul Express are available in the black market with the prices of these copies jumping since the ban was issued. The good folks at Apun ka Choice give us this-

Four days after the Afghan government banned the John Abraham – Arshad Warsi starrer’s screening in the country due to fears that certain derogatory remarks in it about Shia Hazaras might offend the minority community, the rental rate for ‘Kabul Express’ has shot up to 30 Afghanis as against 10 Aghanis for other films in the local market.

The price of a DVD of the film has jumped from 50 Afghanis (one dollar) to 100 Afghanis, but people said getting hold of copies was no problem.

At the end of the day, the ban has hurt the makers financially but it has not stopped the viewer from obtaining copies of the movie. All the Afghan government has done is supported the growth piracy. Well done!

[via Dawn | Apun ka Choice]

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