Mumbai/Karachi: In a jolt to Indo-Pak cultural ties, lyricist Javed Akhtar was denied visa by Pakistan and state-owned PTV withdrew sponsorship for an Indian delegation to attend the premiere of magnum opus "Mughal E Azam" on Saturday, leading to cancellation of the event in Karachi.
"I learnt yesterday afternoon that out of the 25-member delegation that was to visit Karachi on Saturday for the premiere of "Mughal-E-Azam", I was the only one to have been denied a visa. I am quite surprised at this," Akhtar said in Mumbai.
However, a spokesman of the Pakistan High Commission said in New Delhi that the lyricist has been given visa.
"I don't understand what kind of a threat I can pose to that country. In fact, we were going for a very noble cause, where a day after the premiere, we were scheduled to participate in a telecon to raise funds for earthquake victims," Akhtar said.
Major Bollywood stars such as Saif Ali Khan, Urmila Matondkar, Akhtar's wife and actress Shabana Azmi, Zeenat Aman and Sridevi were to attend the event, Akhtar said adding the organisers had now decided to postpone the premiere.
At a hurriedly-called press conference in Karachi, distributor of the film Nadeem Mandviwala said PTV had withdrawn its sponsorship of the Indian stars' visit but did not give any reason.
"I cannot tell you why PTV has withdrawn its sponsorship. I would like to clarify here that these Indian idols were the guests of PTV who were extended invitations individually", he said but announced that release of K Asif's 1960 classic would go ahead as scheduled on June 30. No PTV spokesman was available for comment.
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