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Borat’s a winner in the box office and courtroom. PHOTO: EPA

A Pakistan box-office hit will today become the first film from that country to be released across theaters in India in more than four decades, its director said.

Khuda Kay Liye (In the Name of God) stars Pakistani actors Shan, model Iman Ali and India’s Naseeruddin Shah, who plays the role of a Muslim cleric.

Produced by Geo Films, the movie, which will end a ban imposed after the 1965 war between the two neighbors, describes a struggle by moderate Muslims to preserve their religious beliefs following the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the US.

The storyline revolves around two pop musician brothers in Lahore. One falls under the influence of extremists while the other travels to the US and is detained.

“I am happy to see this day. It is most satisfactory that Khuda Kay Liye is the first Pakistani film to be released in India after 43 years,” director Shoaib Mansoor said.

Shortly after its release last year, Khuda Kay Liye won the special jury award at the 31st Cairo International Film Festival in December.

Actor Mel Gibson wants to keep his finances under wraps. PHOTO: AP

It was reported to have collected more than US$1.1 million dollars at the box-office.

“The movie is a big hit in Pakistan. I hope that Indian audiences will like it,” said Bollywood movie producer-director Mahesh Bhatt.

Pakistan’s government outlawed all Bollywood films after the 1965 war with India over the Himalayan territory of Kashmir. The Indian government countered by imposing a ban on Pakistani films.

New Delhi and Islamabad have fought two of their three wars over Kashmir since independence from British rule in 1947. However, ties have improved since the launch of a slow-moving peace process in 2004. And in 2006 Pakistani theaters showed the first Indian film to be released in Pakistan since the ban.

The smaller of Hollywood’s two actors unions said on Wednesday it would give its larger, more militant sibling, the Screen Actors Guild, a two-week head start in opening the next round of labor talks with studios. A day after SAG, which represents about 120,000 film and TV actors, announced it would commence contract negotiations on April 15, the 70,000-member American Federation of Television and Radio Artists said it would launch its own talks with producers on April 28.

Mel Gibson, who is being sued by a writer over payment for the screenplay of his movie The Passion of the Christ, wants to keep financial information about the blockbuster film out of the public eye.

Benedict Fitzgerald claimed in his February lawsuit that Gibson misled him into accepting a small payment for writing the script by saying the movie would cost between US$4 million to US$7 million.

Fitzgerald, who shared screenwriting credits with Gibson, claimed he agreed to “a salary substantially less than what he would have taken had he known the true budget for the film,’’ which the lawsuit claimed was US$25 million to US$50 million. The lawsuit claims fraud, breach of contract, unjust enrichment and seeks unspecified damages.

In court papers filed Tuesday, attorneys for Gibson and his production company asked the court to seal the movie’s financial records and only allow Fitzgerald’s lawyers access to them. The information details the movie’s domestic and foreign box office receipts, production costs and distribution expenses.

The defense is also seeking to dismiss some of Fitzgerald’s claims, including fraud, which if proven would allow Fitzgerald to seek punitive damages.

Meanwhile, a judge has tossed out a defamation lawsuit brought by a businessman shown in the movie Borat as he is chased down Manhattan’s Fifth Avenue by comedian Sacha Baron Cohen.

The 2006 hit, starring Cohen as a crass Kazakhstan journalist, can be deemed “newsworthy,’’ defined in its most liberal and far-reaching terms, US District Judge Loretta Preska said.

New York civil rights law provides limited protection for any person whose image is used for advertising or trade purposes without his written consent, she said, and the nonconsensual use of a person’s image to depict newsworthy events or matters of public interest is exempt from the law.

The lawsuit had sought unspecified damages from the movie’s producer, Twentieth Century Fox, for Jeffrey Lemerond, who claimed he was humiliated when the Borat character tried to catch him.
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