“The movie seems to be breaking the record of audience,” Noushabadi told reporters in a press conference in Tehran on Sunday.
“Many countries have demanded to display the film outside Iran. The movie is being dubbed into Arabic and English and we hope that it will be displayed in Islamic and non-Islamic states in the future,” he added.
Asked about Iran’s plan to introduce the film for competition in the Academy Award, Noushabadi said that a special committee has been set up to study different films to be nominated for the Oscar and it will decide about ‘Mohammad (PBUH), The Messenger of God’, too.
Mohammad (PBUH), The Messenger of God, garnered positive reactions from the audience across the globe.
The 171-minute, visually stunning film cost around $40 million (36 million euros) and took more than seven years to complete.
Mohammad (PBUH), which stars many top Iranian actors, opened and closed the Montreal Film Festival this year.
Majidi has said that the aim of his work, the first part of a trilogy, is to reclaim the rightful image of Islam, which he said extremists have distorted.
“Unfortunately at this time the impression of Islam is of a radical, fanatical and violent religion, which is not what it’s about,” he said in Montreal, where ‘Mohammad’ had its international premiere, hours after screening back home.
“The barbaric acts of terrorism conducted by terrorist groups under the guise of Islam are not related to Islam,” he said, alluding to beheadings and destruction of cultural treasures by the ISIL Takfiri militants in Syria and Iraq.
“Islam is a religion of peace, friendship and love, and I tried to show this in the film.”
“I think this film can be a starting point of research for those who don’t know Islam,” he said.