More than a thousand people have been arrested in Mumbai as part of security measures intended to stop violence over the release of a new Bollywood film.

It follows its star Shah Rukh Khan bemoaning the fact that no Pakistan cricketers were picked for the Indian Premier League Twenty20 competition.

Hindu hardline party Shiv Sena reacted angrily, vowing to disrupt screenings of My Name is Khan, out on Friday.

A police spokesman told that most of the arrests had been “preventative”.

Khan, part-owner of IPL cricket team Kolkata Knight Riders, has stood firm over his remarks but has apologised to his My Name is Khan collaborators.

“I request everybody to leave the film alone and deal with what I have said as an individual,” he told reporters in London last week.

In the film, Khan plays a Muslim with Asperger’s syndrome whose life in the US changes after the 11 September attacks.

Shiv Sena activists broke windows at one cinema in Mumbai where the film is due to open on Friday.