Lollywood: Another loss

Films from the country will not screen at the South Asia Film Festival due to the lack of a subtitling machine.

LAHORE: Lollywood filmmakers will not be sending in their films to represent Pakistan at the South Asia Film Festival Canberra, Australia. The festival will be held from February 25 to February 27. The reason for not having any official submission is the lack of a subtitling machine. Each film that is submitted for the screening at the festival has to be subtitled.

So far, no producer has submitted even one film to the Pakistan Film Producers Association (PFPA), that was asked to get prints of the movies by the Ministry of Culture for those wanting to participate at the festival. The filmmakers say that the concerned ministry informed PFPA quite late, since they now have to take their films to Dubai to get them subtitled.

The Ministry of Culture says it wrote a letter to PFPA on January 29, which the association is said to have received a week later. The office-bearers of the association believe that the ministry should have informed them at least one and a half month prior to the commencement of the festival so that they could make arrangements.

A letter written by the ministry to the association reads: “The Ministry of Culture often receives requests for sending 35mm prints or DVD format Pakistani films from our diplomatic missions abroad. Except for a few films, the Ministry of Culture doesn’t have a clear picture of the availability of Pakistani films for sending to the missions or for participation in international film festivals. Furthermore, the ministry needs to know about films/DVD’s with English and other language subtitles”.

Upon receiving this letter, the association informed the ministry that there is no subtitling machine in Pakistan and the films couldn’t be subtitled in such a short time. “We have long been requesting for a subtitling machine in Pakistan. If a filmmaker gets subtitling done abroad, it costs around Rs500,000, while in Pakistan the same job can be done in Rs40,000. Several producers couldn’t send their films to the festival because there wasn’t enough time and they didn’t want to take the risk of spending money and not receiving their films in time. A good opportunity for Pakistani cinema to represent itself at an international festival is lost because we don’t have a subtitling machine and the ministry didn’t take the matter seriously,” PFPA Secretary Jalaluddin Hasan said.

An official of the ministry, who requested anonymity, told The Express Tribune that just one filmmaker Shahzad Rafique has managed to get his movie Mohabbataan Sachiyaan subtitled, adding that the movie was received by the ministry on Wednesday. “The festival starts on Friday and we received that film very late. We contacted the foreign office but the movie is not likely to be screened,” he revealed.

Hasan said that they had requested the ministry to get them a subtitling machine on soft-loan at four studios of Lahore and the matter was in progress but the culture minster changed. “Now we will have to wait again. The chance to get an international audience is lost,” he regretted.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 24^th, 2011.