MUMBAI: Bollywood actor Akshay Kumar, whose film ‘Khiladi 786’ has released yesterday, has another great reason to celebrate. His film, which was reportedly banned in our neighboring country Pakistan, will now see the light of day in the said country.

Of course, ‘Khiladi’ Akshay Kumar was not the first superstar to run into trouble with Pakistan’s censor board.

Previously, Saif Ali Khan’s ‘Agent Vinod’ and Salman’s ‘Ek Tha Tiger’ were banished from the neighboring country altogether. Even Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Jab Tak Hai Jaan’ faced opposition for alleged Kashmir scenes, but the film did end up releasing there after all.

But now it seems Pakistan has green lighted the proposal to release ‘Khiladi 786’, albeit under the title ‘Khiladi’.

Since 786 is a sacred number for Muslims, and it might end up hurting religious sentiments of certain sections. The posters and banners for the film had been removed in Rawalpindi and Karachi last week.

A source from Pakistan revealed to Businessofcinema.com, “It will be released as ‘Khiladi’.”

Meanwhile, let us remind you that Bollywood has always seemed to have had a fascination for this special number, ‘786’. Right from Amitabh Bachchan’s ‘Billa No.786’ in ‘Coolie’ and Shah Rukh Khan’s ‘Qaidi No.786’ in ‘Veer-Zaara’, the number has held special prominence on the Indian silver screen.

Reveals Rakesh Upadhyay, creative producer of ‘Khiladi 786’, “It denotes that Akshay’s character Bahattar Singh has ‘Allah ki rahmat’ (Allah’s blessings) and how when he gets bruised, there is some upheaval all around. There is only an undertone of the number in the film, it has not been exaggerated.”

And the film’s first screening was indeed even more reason for Akshay to rejoice. The screening saw funny man Vinay Pathak, Ranveer Shorey, Tara Sharma, and a host of other B’town celebs in attendance.