Dev Patel and Armie Hammer-starrer, Hotel Mumbai, revolving around the brutal 26/11 terrorist attacks that took place in Mumbai in 2008, released in the US and other international markets on 29 March. But the film failed to hit the Indian theatres.
Hotel Mumbai recreates the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel siege by members of Lashkar-e-Taiba, and tells the story of a brave chef (Dev) and kitchen worker (played by Anupam Kher), who decide to risk their own lives to protect the guests.
Despite the content being relevant to India, the film did not release here. A Times Of India report suggests that the silence around Hotel Mumbai's India release has led "many distributors to speculate that the reason could be its sensitive content."
While Bleecker Street, the film's US distributors told the daily that they do not have the international rights to the film, companies that are distributing the film in other international markets have refused to comment on the subject.
Meanwhile, some local distributors, including Delhi-based Shaaminder Mallik, told Times of India that the film could not find any distributors in India because of the film's "sensitive nature".
Netflix, which was slated to buy the film, has also dropped it from their roster after getting entangled in a legal hassle. Plus Holdings, a Dubai-based company had recently moved the Bombay High Court filing a petition to seek injunction against Netflix from screening Hotel Mumbai. They claimed that they had the rights to release the movie in SAARC countries.
Directed by Anthony Maras, the film also stars Jason Isaacs and Nazanin Boniadi.
(With inputs from Times of India)
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