Daijiworld News Network

Dubai, Aug 3: In response to complaints from viewers, the Ministry of Information and Culture has reportedly banned the latest bollywood hit 'Killer' from being screened in the UAE for portraying Dubai police in poor light.

The region's first evening daily Emirates Post, featuring the news on its front page, reported that top ministry officials blamed producers for portraying the Dubai police in a negative way. "You just can't come to Dubai, shoot a film and show the cops here in poor light," Emirates Post quoted top officials as saying.

The 'Killer' movie has been extensively shot in Dubai, featuring Sheikh Zayed Road, Burjuman Centre, Jumeirah, Mall of Emirates, Pyramid Building and Wafi Centre.

Based on the Tom Cruise-Jamie Foxx-starrer 'Collateral', it has Emraan Hashmi playing the role of a taxi driver hired for a night by a contract assassin, played by Irrfan Khan. Khan is on a killing spree which has to be completed within the night, with Dubai cops in hot pursuit.

The movie was released on July 19 across several theatres in the UAE and pulled off screen on July 25.

As quoted by Emirates Post, Mukesh Bhatt, responding to the ban, says, 'Ban is not the solution. The film has been passed by the Dubai censor board. If someone had still some objection, they should have brought it to my notice and we could have solved / cut the objectionable content by meeting face to face"

Mukesh Bhatt says that during the first weekend the film has made USD 60,000 collection and it would have been much higher if the film was not banned.

Emirates Post also reported that there has been a huge demand for pirated CDs even though the movie has been banned. The demand for the forbidden naturally goes up, not in spite of the ban, but as a result of it, said a regular film-goer.

Officials from the Censorship department which had earlier cleared the film for theatre-viewing were unavailable for comment.