Akbar Khan whose Mughal romance ‘Taj Mahal - An Eternal Love Story’ is soon going to become the first Indian film in 41 years to be released in Pakistan, got full support of film industry bigwigs in a recent industry meet called by Khan just after his famous spat with veteran filmmaker Yash Chopra at the F.I.C.C.I. Frames Convention.

Yash Chopra has delibrately ignored to mention Khan’s film at the event and then chose to make it a platform for the propagation of his banner and his film ‘Veer Zaara’.

Important People like Mahesh Bhatt, Shyam Shroff, Pahlaj Nihalani (President of AMPTPP), Ratan Jain, Vikas Mohan, Sanjay Khan, Shashi Ranjan and Aditya Bhattacharya came to pledge their support towards Akbar Khan. Khan of course chose the occasion to snub Chopra for his narrow-minded outlook.

He said, “We need to look at the bigger picture of friendship between two countries, rather than whether Veer-Zaara or Taj Mahal would be the first to release in Pakistan. This is not about who is a bigger name; it is about spreading love. It would be a tragedy if I have a divided home and seek our industry to promote friendship with the industry of Pakistan”.

According to Khan, the film is being released with 25 prints to start with, considering the acute shortage of Dolby theatres in Pakistan. The theatrical promos of the film have already started playing in Pakistan and according to him, have generated a considerable pre-release curiosity for the April 28 release of the film.

Meanwhile the Pakistan government seems to have unofficially chosen him as an ambassador of the film industry for Indo-Pak ties. Last week a 20-member delegation from Pakistan dropped down at his Juhu-based residence in Mumbai to discuss various aspects of the film market in their country.