This Eid Pakistani audience will be watching five movies that too from Pakistan only
KARACHI: This Eid Pakistani audience will be watching five movies that too from Pakistan only. Pertaining to the government’s ban on Bollywood films it is expected that the potential revenue for the cinema owners won’t be lost as Pakistani films will make up for it. The move is appreciable in the sense, that on an occasion like Eid, Pakistani filmmakers will be in a better position to gauge the business their films do and by extension of it gauge their chances of venturing into the international film market.
During the past decade, efforts to revamp the local cinema have paid off substantially as Pakistani films have been screened in international film festivals as well. However, to entirely replace Indian films with quality Pakistani films, there’s a lot that still needs to be done.
The functioning of the film censor board is mostly confined to approving or banning a film with zero facilitation to filmmakers, as is evident by the fact that films produced are a private initiative and cinemas are too a private investment.
Film and cinema business will remain entertainment to a certain niche unless the government takes it on itself to treat cinema like any other of its departments it is bound to take care of.
Omar Siddiqui
Published in The Express Tribune, June 16th, 2018.
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