‘Let’s bring the Oscar home’: Celebrities congratulate team Joyland on govt’s decision to clear the film for release

Four days after it declared Joyland ‘uncertified’, the federal government has decided to clear the film for release. Celebrities have taken to different mediums to celebrate the decision, while Osman Khalid Butt and Yasir Hussain have questions for the censor board that declared the film “uncertified” in the first place.

On Wednesday, head of the Prime Minister’s Strategic Reforms, Salman Sufi tweeted, “The film Joyland has been cleared for release by the censor board review committee formed at the direction of PM Shehbaz Sharif. Freedom of speech is fundamental right and should be nourished within ambits of the law.”

Taking the news to her Instagram story, Aly congratulated the whole Joyland team and said, “let’s bring the Oscar home!”

Chupke Chupke actor Butt tweeted that he hopes that there is a proper investigation as to “how and why there was an attempt to ban an already-certified, board approved film” in the first place.

He said one either trusts the censor boards, overhauls the system or introduce a proper rating system for the films than simply making a decision based of supposed “written complaints” received about a film.

Actor Nafees announced that Joyland cleared for release with a celebratory emoji and said those who don’t want to watch it mustn’t, with the hashtag #okaythanksbye.

“Grateful to everyone who made it possible. Thank you people,” wrote Afgan with a post by Leftistan 2.0 on Instagram announcing the news about the film’s release.

Actor Hussain directed his post at the censor board and wrote, “you can only be part of story, but, you can’t stop a story. It starts to yell if it won’t find a room to tell itself.”

On Saturday, Senator Mushtaq Ahmed Khan of the JI shared a copy of the notice dated November 11, that read that the Central Board of Film Censors Islamabad granted the censor certificate on August 17 this year. However, after receiving complaints that “the film contains highly objectionable material which do not conform with the social values and moral standards of our society and is clearly repugnant to the norms of ’decency and morality; as laid down in Section 9 of the Motion Picture Ordinance, 1979,” the federal government declared Joyland “uncertified”.

Multiple celebrities rallied behind writer-director Saim Sadiq of Joyland for the film’s release, demanding the censor board and government to reconsider their decision.

Joyland been produced by Apoorva Guru Charan, Sarmad Sultan Khoosat and Lauren Mann. The film’s ensemble cast includes debutantes Ali Junejo, Alina Khan, and Rasti Farooq alongside some of Pakistan’s beloved and respected actors like Sarwat Gilani, Sania Saeed, Sohail Sameer and Salmaan Peerzada.