Controversy of filming a song in mosque

ISLAMABAD: A Pakistani court granted interim bail on Saturday to actor-turned-director Saba Qamar and singer Bilal Saeed in a case related to shooting a music video at the

historical Wazir Khan mosque

in Lahore.


A short clip of Qamar, who has acted in quite a few Bollywood films, such as “Hindi Medium” and “Lahore se Agay", whirling with Saeed at the mosque went viral on social media. The video drew strong reactions from religious and political circles.

On August 13, a case was registered by advocate Farhat Manzoor against Qamar and Saeed for shooting a music video for their latest song, “Qubool”, at the mosque.

Manzoor has accused the celebrities of hurting the sentiments of Muslims by filming a music video at a mosque and also appealed for stern action against the mosque administration.

Following the controversy, Saeed and Qamar have apologised on social media. “We realise what has happened over the past few days has hurt your sentiments deeply. We as Muslims, as decent human beings and as artists, will never, ever trivialise or condone disrespect to Islam or any other religion, race caste, colour or creed. If we have unknowingly hurt anyone’s sentiments, we apologise to you all with our heart,” Saeed said in a video message.

Qamar also responded to the criticism in a series of tweets, saying the clip was a “prologue to the music video featuring a nikkah scene at Wawazir Khan Mosque”.

“It was neither shot with any sort of playback music nor has it been edited to the music track,” she posted on Twitter.