The government Thursday stopped Bollywood movie Chandni Chowk To China (CC2C) from screening in the cinema halls across the country as protests continued against the flick that fabricated that Lord Buddha was born in India.

Film distributors Wednesday decided to ban the film as they were haunted by violence that flared up in 2000 with Bollywood star Hrithik Roshan making negative remarks against Nepal.

Cinama halls like Jai Nepal, Kumari, Gopi Krishna Movies, Barahi Movies, Guna Cinema and Ashta Narayan cinema dropped showing the Akshay Kumar-Deepika Padukone starrer. Instead they began screening Ghajini.

Students around the capital continued with their protest programmes today chanting the slogan "Buddha was born in Nepal, learn to respect Nepal’s identity and sovereignty." Enraged students had already torn off the posters of the movie at Jai Nepal cinema. They also said that its CDs and VCDs that have begun circulating here still contain the offending dialogue.

Before being released in Nepal Friday, CC2C was viewed by Nepal’s censor board who objected to the dialogue. Subsequently, the distributors deleted it.

Minister for Information and Communications Krishna Bahadur Mahara said that the film that created a controversy on Buddha’s birth had been banned and appealed for the similar move around the world.

The head of the Nepal Film Directors’ Association K. P. Pathak urged the audiences to boycott all foreign films that give wrong message.

Buddha was born as prince Siddhartha in Lumbini in south Nepal in 623 BC. Thousands of pilgrims and tourists visit Lumbini every year to pay their homage to the apostle of peace.

Agencies stated that controversy has also created bad blood between the Nepalese and Indians on YouTube with messages becoming abusive.

CC2C is the first Hindi film that has been shot in China. It is directed by Nikhil Advani and produced by Sippy Films as well as Warner Brothers.