Buoyed by the global attention surrounding Udta Punjab, a Bollywood thriller that showcases the drug menace in Punjab, a media house is looking at doing a similar production involving gangs and crime in Surrey.

Cinemagoers thronged theatres as the controversial film, Udta Punjab, began screening last Friday after the Bombay High Court beat down government censors who had attempted to thwart the movie’s release ahead of elections in Punjab where the film is set.

In the multi-billion international drug rackets busted by the Punjab Police in recent years , the names of sportspersons, police officers, politicians, non-resident Indians (NRIs) and smugglers have surfaced.

Punjab state borders Pakistan and most of the drugs trafficked in the region originate from Afghanistan and are processed in Pakistan's tribal areas.

Bollywood film producer Anurag Kashyap said his film was a realistic portrayal of the drug trade in Punjab.

The controversy took a political twist with state legislature elections due early next year.

Censor Board chief Pahlaj Nihalini said in a newspaper interview that the movie Udta Punjab wrongly depicts 70 percent of people of the state consuming drugs and defaming them. He told reporters that the censor board has approved the movie for screening in theaters with the cuts ordered.

He accused producer Anurag Kashyap of whipping up a controversy to create interest in his film.

Kashyap took his row with India's censor board to a court, challenging dozens of cuts and changes to a film that depicts the menace of drug abuse in the northern state of Punjab as other Bollywood producers and directors rallied behind Kashyap in his fight with the censor board.

Compared to Hollywood, movie norms in India are extremely strict. Censorship authorities often order filmmakers - both Indian and foreign - to chop scenes deemed offensive. Films with graphic content can be barred completely.

Last year, India's censor authorities ordered that kissing scenes in the James Bond movie, "Spectre," be shortened before it was released in the country.

Kashyap said the censor board chief Nihalini demanded 89 cuts to the film and even asked him to drop the name of the state from the title, "Udta Punjab," or "Flying Punjab."

The cuts suggested for “Udta Punjab” included removing the word “Punjab” throughout the film, deleting expletives or words like “election” and “parliament”, and bleeping out the name of a dog called Jackie Chan.

Punjab goes to the polls next year and is a crucial state for Modi, whose nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party is junior partner to the regional party that runs it.

Opposition parties such as the Congress and the Aam Aadmi Party have accused the Modi government of obstructing the film to divert attention from what Congress leader Rahul Gandhi called Punjab’s “crippling drug problem”.

As Udta Punjab hit the screens, India West Canada Inc., a new Media Corporation in a Press Release by their Secretary Dr. Sahiba Kaur, said it was pledging $ 5 Million dollars to produce a similar movie called “Udta Surrey BC”.

Surrey RCMP says most of those involved in the gun violence are typically young and working on the front-line of the local drug trade, meaning they take calls from customers, package drugs for street sales and make deliveries for the city’s numerous dial-a-dope lines, The Vancouver Sun reported.

Dozens of convictions, shootings and investigations involve Punjabi youth whose families immigrated to Canada.

The violence comes from their battles over turf, personal disputes and the fact they have ready access to firearms even at the lowest rung of the drug business. Several of the 2016 shootings have been linked to two warring groups.

India West Canada Inc., in a Press Release by their Secretary Dr. Sahiba Kaur said the Udta Punjab story line has the NRI’s of Canada and United States, worried about their children, who are in the same boat as youth of Punjab.

The company is planning to approach Creative BC, an independent agency that is responsible for promoting the development of creative industries in British Columbia, for tax credits to produce the movie in Vancouver, Surrey, Langley and Abbottsford, which have a large Indo-Canadian population.

India West Canada Inc., said it has approached Balaji Motion Pictures and has invited Ekta Kapoor to Vancouver to sign the Joint Venture Agreement.

“Udta Surrey BC”, the company said will star Shahid Kapoor, Alia Bhatt, Diljit Dosanjh and Kareena Khan Kapoor, with a special role for Bollywood mega stars Amitabh Bachhan and Yograj Singh, stated its Press Release.