The promo with a press conference scene shows Kapoor rebuking journalists saying, “You people should be writing scripts. If a heroine buys a car, it's given to her by a businessman, if she goes to LA, she's getting plastic surgery done and, God forbid, if she goes to Dubai, you people make her a rate card.”

Dubai residents reacted furiously saying that the suggestion that Bollywood actresses who visit Dubai end up as call girls with price tags was ‘sickening’.

Dubai-based media personalities accused Bollywood of tarnishing the image of Dubai.

A popular radio Jockey Kritika Rawa said, “To use its name in such a callous manner shows the ignorance of the filmmaker and is just not acceptable.”

Another Dubai-based TV personality Uma Ghosh Deshpande said, “I couldn't understand why Indian filmmakers were still obsessed with typecasts.”

“It's high time Indian films stop associating Dubai with the underworld and prostitution. Their lopsided perception has to change. Dubai is an important market for Bollywood which is why Indian films are routinely premiered here,” she added.

Ironically, ‘Heroine’ has been co-written and directed by renowned filmmaker Madhur Bhandarkar, who in 2010, was honored in Dubai for his contribution to Indian film industry.