Pathaan hits records despite religious controversy

Bollywood legendary actor, Shah Rukh Khan has returned to the big screen with a globe-trotting spy thriller movie, Pathaan.

Directed by Siddharth Anand, Pathaan stars Shah Rukh Khan and Deepika Padukone in lead roles, with John Abraham playing the main antagonist.

Pathaan is the fourth installment in the Yash Raj Films Spy Universe, after Ek Tha Tiger, Tiger Zinda Hai, and War.

In the movie, Khan plays an official agent who takes on a soldier of fortune, played by John Abraham, in an effort to save India from a devastating attack.

Deepika plays a Pakistani agent in the movie and Ashutosh Rana and Dimple Kapadia play Pathaan’s superiors.

It also features cameo appearances from Hrithik Roshan and Salman Khan who are said to be reprising their roles from War and the Tiger franchise, respectively.

The first song from the movie Pathaan, "Besharam Rang" which roughly translates to shameless colour in Hindi was released and it has attracted attention, with some being negative.

The video of Besharam Rang features actress Deepika in a saffron-coloured bikini and Khan in a green shirt, which apparently is hurting the religious sentiments of some people.

The choice of colour for saffron being a colour claimed by Hindu nationalists, and Khan in green which can be interpreted as a reference to Islam, the actor's religion, was enough to trigger controversy.

Due to the controversy, there have been calls from Hindu extremists to get the song banned from the movie.

Fortunately, it was reported that violence against theatres that screen the movie has been a minority so far.

Despite poster-tearing events in Pune, Bhagalpur and Indore, it was reported that Pathaan has been leading the domestic and international markets until Feb 8 with a collection of RM445.31 million ($103.56 million).

Khan has come forward to thank his supporters for watching the movie.

"Thank you for showing great support for the film, there's so much love from all sides and we can never thank you enough," he said during a press conference recently.