Now it’s Osama bin Laden, the comedy

Osama bin Laden makes his big-screen debut in new Bollywood comedy Tere Bin Laden.

The film has been hailed as a comedy masterpiece. It has been banned in Pakistan and its release delayed in America, but is in cinemas in Britain from today.

Star Ali Zafar said: "I was a little apprehensive because I didn't want to be a part of anything that would offend anyone's sentiments. After I read the script I realised that it was a simple, mad comedy with a universal sensibility."

The Pakistani pop idol plays a journalist who dupes the world media with a lookalike of Osama Bin Laden after he is rejected for an American visa.

"It's not a comedy about Osama. It is more a take on the Bush policies after 9/11 and the discrimination that South Asians have faced around the world because of them," said Zafar.

Writer/director Abhishek Sharma says the film is also about Pakistanis' love-hate relationship with Americans: "A line which goes, Yankee go home — but take me with you', captures this perfectly."