The Legend of Maula Jatt has been all the rage in Pakistan’s entertainment circles and beyond for the last month and the film justified exepctations with a stellar opening day, raking in Rs 93 million in box office receipts.

A reboot of Yunus Malik’s 1979 cult classic Maula Jatt, the film is a re-telling of the rivalry between the protagonist Maula Jatt and his rival Noori Natt. The film has faced several delays and is finally being released after production. Work on the movie began in 2017.

What took cine buff and film aficionados by surprise was that that movie, which was a long time and big bucks in the making, is being screened at a handful of theatres: Karachi’s Atrium and Capri cinemas and Lahore’s Cue Cinema.

They are missing from major multiplexes including Nueplex and Cinepax.

It led to such a strong reaction that the management of Nueplex issued a statement to clarify why it wasn’t screening the latest iteration of the classic

In its statement, Nueplex said that they decided against screening the movie as the distributor Nadeem Mandviwalla was asking for payment that was “out of the Industry norms”.

Actor Syed Jibran took to Twitter over the “deadlock” while observing that the distributor’s demand to “increase ticket prices for a larger share” was an unwise step.

Of the 122 screens in Pakistan almost 50 of the main multiplex screens have not yet released any schedule for The Legend of Maula Jatt a day after the film’s release, which he called “the most important trend-setting first day of the film”.

Journalist Hassan Choudary targeted the business acumen of the distributor and the cinema owner, pontificating why would they want to deprive themselves of the revenue which, he added, would be ‘unprecedented’.

Legal action on copyright violation

Meanwhile, the makers of the film have threatened legal action against viewers who would post scenes from the film. “Strict legal action will be taken against those posting movie recordings and videos on their social media accounts or channels,” the film’s official Twitter handle shared

The statement was later shared by director Bilal Lashari and producer Ammara Hikmat alongside the rest of the cast as well.

The cast includes some of Pakistan’s biggest names and crowd pullers, including Hamza Ali Abbasi, Fawad Khan, Mahira Khan, Humaima Malick, and Gohar Rasheed.