“That’s what my character in the film does, she speaks out — and that’s what Pakistani media, audiences, social media users and fans have done by asking for the film to be unbanned,” she said in a recent interview.

Ms. Khan, who previously starred in an Indian film with Shah Rukh Khan, perhaps Bollywood’s biggest name, said the censors had objected to her film largely because it dealt with political and sexual inequalities in Pakistani society and the difficulties that victims of even the most heinous crimes faced as they sought justice.

“People spoke up for my film because they understand that rape is not just an act of sexual frustration; it is an act of showing power,” Ms. Khan said. “And when people came out and said unban this film, what they were saying was, we won’t let these powerful people intimidate us anymore.”

The film is reminiscent of the real-life case of Mukhtar Mai, who was gang-raped as a teenager in 2002 on the orders of a village council as a punishment for her younger brother’s affair with a woman. Instead of killing herself, as rape victims sometimes do in rural Pakistan, she pressed charges against her attackers and became an international campaigner for women’s rights.

Image Hasan Zaidi, a Pakistani filmmaker, said he did not believe that even films that generated a lot of discussion, like “Verna,” would be enough to revive Pakistan’s ailing film industry. Credit... Athar Hussain/Reuters

But Ms. Mai’s work has earned her many enemies, including powerful feudal lords and Pervez Musharraf, the president at the time of her case, who said crying rape was an easy way to make money or get a foreign passport.

“There is always a reaction to a strong woman who wants to fight, who wants to go public with injustice, whether it’s a real Mukhtaran Mai or a fictional representation of someone like her,” said Ms. Bilal, the filmmaker. “But what is important is that people in Pakistan are ready to talk about and tackle these issues.”