Will Pakistani Cinema be able to overcome Bollywood in coming years?

[Lurker_Ind]

Bhojpuri films/music are an embarrassment to humanity.

Those movies are like Viagra in motion.

Just look at the fertitlity rate of Biharis and UP Wallahs. Watch the movies and make tons of babies

 

[bond007]

Pakistani cinema wont be able to compete with indian cinema as you give a movie like "shah" a time of 4 am (still a packed house though)while in the day you show indian movie "brothers".

 

[enkidu_]

Obviously, will be really hard to surpass (in terms of revenues) the Bollywood, Telugu and Tamil cinemas of India, but I can see Lollywood get ahead of the Indian Punjabi (which is comparable to Pak when it comes to its "revival"), Kannada and perhaps even Malayalam industries, at least financially (Malayalam movies esp. are of top quality), in the upcoming years. There's a momentum going on right now and decent releases still to come (thinking of Yalghaar), just have to keep that pace for few years, have a cinema culture, "stars"-driven system, mushrooming of multiplexes paralleling the growth of the urban middle-class (which is slowly helping Bollywood not only producing "mature" content, but getting a public for it), ...

Pak cinema was in fact really decent until the "Maula Jutt" phenomenon/Zia ul Haq's régime (both being linked) - it's slow demise has been as harsh as that of Bengali cinema.

 

[Hitman]

Bring back Bollywood, we can’t watch Pakistani films about Kulbhushan Jadhav sabotaging CPEC

Bollywood films mean packed cinema halls. Now, minister Fawad Chaudhry is having to ask Netflix and Amazon to invest in Pakistani content.


Two things have been constant in our lifetime in Pakistan – azadi of Kashmir and the crisis-revival-crisis of local cinema. On Kashmir, we are knocking on all doors internationally. And it is no secret that Pakistan’s cinema industry is fuelled by Indian films and when these are banned, the business suffers.

Pakistani Science and Technology Minister Fawad Chaudhry is asking Netflix and Amazon to invest in and produce Pakistani films and dramas; it will be a good time for him to first help the local industry that is suffering.

Given the turbulent political relationship between India and Pakistan, movies are often the first casualty. Last February, after the Pulwama terror attack that led to the Balakot airstrike, the Pakistani government banned Indian films. There was little thought into how Pakistani cinema owners, who depend on Bollywood films for their livelihood, will be affected. But patriotism is bigger than smaller interests like profits and livelihoods.


Little takers for local content

In 150 cinemas across Pakistan, only 22 Urdu films were released in 2019, generating Rs 1.5 billion. This number fell short for cinema owners of multiplexes in big cities. Even films like Mahira Khan’s Superstar, Meera’s Baaji and Mikaal Zulfikar’s Sherdil – all of which got rave reviews and did well at the box office – didn’t stay in cinema houses for long. Cinema owners often put tickets on 50 per cent discount every time there’s a new release to fill the halls. But even that doesn’t help because the cost of showing films in modern multiplexes has gone up and there’s a loss no matter what.

The dearth of good quality local content doesn’t make the situation any better either. And the audience that can watch pirated versions of Indian films on DVDs or online continues to reject Pakistani content. Even jingoistic films like Kaaf Kangana, which was funded by Pakistan Army’s Inter-Services Public Relations, was rejected by the cinemagoers.

Banning Bollywood doesn’t amount to taking out the competition and letting local producers thrive. But that hasn’t been the case. With no Indian films to fill the spots, the audiences for Hollywood or other English films are scarce, which has resulted in reduced number of shows at multiplexes on weekends and ticket prices soaring. Film distributors say that, eventually, the Imran Khan government will have to lift the ban from Indian films or help the cinema industry with subsidies and taxes. But given the inflation in Pakistan, the government won’t be of much help other than coming up with measures like banning Indian content that only hurt the cinema owners.


Stock response

In the absence of Bollywood content, we wonder which dramas minister Fawad Chaudhry had been watching on Netflix that inspired him into thinking the streaming services could produce make original content for Pakistan. The dearth of production in the country can’t even fill the cinema houses around the year.

But this ban on Bollywood films is not new. In 1965, after the second war between the two countries, Indian films were banned by military ruler General Ayub Khan. It took another military dictator, Gen Pervez Musharraf, to remove the ban on Indian films in 2007 – more than 40 years later. In those four decades, Pakistan’s cinema industry collapsed. Going to the movies was no more a family experience; the substandard and vulgar Punjabi films had little takers.

With the reopening of Indian films in 2007, several cinemas in Lahore that were shut for years sprung to life as multiplexes and business thrived. Nearly a decade later, bans were back in the scene, with one from the Indian side, in 2016. After the Uri surgical strike, the Indian Motion Picture Producers’ Association banned Pakistani artistes from working in Indian films in what they thought was a befitting reply. In response, a group of Pakistani cinema owners decided to indefinitely stop screening all Indian films to show solidarity with the Pakistan Army. Three months later, the ban was lifted.


No signs of ‘samjhauta’

But in August 2019, following India’s Article 370 move in Jammu and Kashmir, Indian films once again found themselves under the hammer. There are no signs of the Imran Khan government giving a second thought to the new ban. The decision is hurting business but it is good for our national character, so we are told.

Between banning movies and artistes from the other country, there is now a new element added to the exchange – the question of rakes. Now, India wants Pakistan to return the Samjhauta Express rake, which is lying for the past five months at Wagah.

Until there is no samjhuta (compromise) on the ban, Pakistanis will be stuck with films like Dhai Chaal that will show us our favourite ‘R&AW agent’ Kulbhushan Jadhav running around in Balochistan, sabotaging the multi-billion-dollar China-Pakistan Economic Corridor project. What? No spoilers; for that you have to wait for the release, or not.

The author is a freelance journalist from Pakistan. Her Twitter handle is @nailainayat. Views are personal.

Link: https://theprint.in/opinion/letter-...hushan-in-balochistan-sabotaging-cpec/350161/

 

[Majid Khan]

It’s a shame when you see the mediocre standard of Pakistani films because the acting talent is definitely there , as we can see in Pakistani TV dramas - but a few observations that I keep seeing when trying to watch a Pakistan movie and disappoints every time :

1. There is no originality , just be yourself, instead of trying to show that you too can do Bollywood
2. Shafqat Cheema if I’ve got his name right, that guy with the fake moustache generally and equally fake evil laugh, is he the only guy in the whole of Pakistan who is qualified to play a villain ? He seems to be the bad guy in just about every Pakistani movie I’ve watched since the 80s and a horrible actor to go with it.
3. Why not try new genres and subjects for film making? Maybe an edge of the seat thriller about a plane hijacking, a hostage situation ? A biopic about a great sportsman (like Mo Hafeez), a historical epic about freedom struggle based in 1800s under British rule? Does it always have to be the typical love story, some injustice and then hero takes revenge in the end?
4. Comedy , yes all for it but it’s got to funny for it to work, surely ? The amount of over the top stupidity and immaturity you see in the name of comedy in Pakistani films is beyond belief.

 

[sweep_shot]

I am sure it can be achieved but it may take a while. Bollywood is really far ahead currently.

 

[JaDed]

Movies are not only about acting, if not that theater is enough.

Telugu movie industry can easily be a case study to thrive after moving to a new location and doing well inspite of competition from Setup Tamil one and overpowering Hindi one.

Irrespective, footfalls in theaters has been going down throughout the world except few places.. streaming is the thing now..

Anyhow I heard Maula Jatt is cleared.. so that shouldnhelp..

 

[Lonewarrior]

Link: https://theprint.in/opinion/letter-...hushan-in-balochistan-sabotaging-cpec/350161/

nailainayat, dont think shes a pakistani, her nationality is still a mystery ...
btw, who the hell shes to talk about on behalf of 220 mill people ?
its her effing opinion ...

 

[minamino]

My cousins are big fans of Bollywood and they really want it back in Pakistan. There is a long way before Pakistan's cinema can even come close to Bollywood.

Bollywood is renowned worldwide and the movies are dubbed in many languages in those countries such as in Arabic, Chinese etc.