Despite squabbles, Bollywood a lifeline for Pakistani films: Jami

Director says that new cinemas came because of Bollywood and it is still giving CPR to our industry

Despite border skirmishes, cross-border shelling and gunpowder-laced neighbourly acrimony, Bollywood films continue to provide a lifeline to Pakistan's film industry, says leading filmmaker Jamshed Mahmood Raza (Jami).

"It's very simple. We are cousins. We share the same language. We share the same songs. We had cinemas, but we were not making films. New cinemas came because of Bollywood. Once the cinemas started to emerge, the filmmakers were ready. We can't make films if there's no cinema to show it. Bollywood is still giving CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) to our industry," Jami told IANS.



Jami's film Moor has been selected as Pakistan's official entry for this year's Academy awards and was screened at the just-concluded 46th edition of the International Film Festival of India (IFFI).

Moor, which means 'mother' in Pashtun, is set in the terror-ridden region of northern Balochistan in Pakistan, where women fight mafia and railway corruption and take charge of their families.

PHOTO: FILE

"It's slightly abstract for a Pakistani audience. Critically, it's one of the best, but financially it's probably the worst right now. The film was not for the masses and we had 11 am screen timings. I mean nobody would come on a weekday at 11 am. We were sidelined as an art film," said Jami.



Jami jokingly argued that the film was perhaps selected as Pakistan's entry for the Oscar awards precisely because it did not make any money.

"Well, I mean if you look at all the Oscar entries only Whiplash or some other film made money. It's interesting, if you don't make money, it is pretty much a guarantee that you will make the Oscar entry," he said.

Jami also mentioned the influence of legendary American director Stanley Kubrick on him, which explains his film's abstract drift.

"I have a very different story from Bollywood or Lollywood. I was trained in an American film school. I loved Kubrick and in Pakistan not many people understood him," he explains.



When asked about shooting in the terror-affected and kidnapping-prone region of Balochistan, he said: "Balochistan is sensitive. Yes, it was tough working there, but it was secure also because we went through so many security agencies. We have Taliban insurgencies going on there too."

"The army and the government were really protecting us because we had an American with us, a Pakistani American, and they don't want any kidnapping cases," he explained.

A fan of Bollwyood actor Aamir Khan, Jami said that film bans, like the one on Indian films in Pakistan, simply does not work. In fact the 1971 ban, he said, actually finished the Pakistani film industry.

"From 1971 we banned (Indian films) -- our industry was destroyed, not the Indian industry," he says.

PHOTO: FILE

But there is a glimmer of hope he said, because the terror strike in a Peshawar school last year which killed over 100 students was a tragic catalyst, which has made Pakistanis sick of terrorism.

"Actually what people don't know about Pakistan is that right now, it's exploding in every direction. We are sick and tired of terrorism. Everyone is getting over this religious thing now, slowly," he said.

The signs of a cultural revival are all over the country, according to Jami.

"So many bands are coming back, so many films are being made, so many cinema halls are coming up. There is definitely a change on the cards," the filmmaker said.