Pakistan orders Indian film icon off billboards

"We are not enemies of Mr Bachchan. But his picture on our national flag was an objectionable act and we ordered them to remove his picture from the flag," Mirza Asif Baig, a local government official told Reuters on Friday.

"This place is reserved only for our own heroes," he added.

Telefun, a private call-in entertainment company, had posted the giant billboards round the city to promote a call-in quiz contest along the lines of an Indian television version of the US quiz show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire hosted by Bachchan.

The billboards said the show would be aired from August 14 the Independence Day of Pakistan.

Bachchan is regarded as the most famous living Indian movie star and is popular on both sides of the border, although there is a long-standing ban on screening of Indian films in cinema halls in Pakistan.