After four years in limbo, Sarmad Khoosat is set to release his much-hyped film Zindagi Tamasha on YouTube on Friday.

Khoosat made the announcement in a video posted to his Instagram account on Thursday.

“Some dil ki baat about Zindagi Tamasha,” he wrote in the caption.

He began the video by saying that he was about to set his film free as Pakistan entered the month of its independence.

An emotional Khoosat then said that he had obtained certificates from all three censor boards in Pakistan but the film had not been able to reach theatres. So after four years, Khoosat said, the film’s version approved by censors would be posted to YouTube on Friday.

Khoosat added that in addition to censor board demands he had also added one of his own cuts to the movie.

He added that he would not put advertisements on the video on YouTube but would add a link allowing people to make any contribution they liked to an independent film studio.

The director also said that he would reveal the full uncensored version, called a director’s cut, on Vimeo with an on-demand label. He also appealed that it was his right as an artist that the movie not be priated or torrented.

Khoosat lamented the fact that the film had been created to be enjoyed as a collective cinematic spectacle but was that experience had been denied to the audience.

He also said that viewere should put aside whatever controversies they heard about the film before watching, and judge the film on its artistice merit.

‘It’s free, it’s yours,“ he said.

Originally created in 2019, Zindagi Tamasha became the subject of controversies including criticism from religious groups. However, despite being selected as Pakistan’s official submission to the oscars in 2021 and going under the censor board’s knives multiple times, it was never released.