Paving the way: Uncovering the challenges facing Pakistani film industry

Speakers discuss future of cinema, public relations, editorial freedom at KU’s marathon conference

KARACHI: Making a movie is a beautiful process but selling it is quite difficult especially in Pakistan, said film director and producer JM Ansari.

He was speaking at a session, titled ‘Future of Cinema and Teaching of Film in Pakistan’, on the second day of the first International Marathon Conference, Media Education: Theory, Industry and Research at Karachi University on Thursday.

According to Ansari, the film industry in Pakistan is under training and it will mature with time. Everywhere in the world, he said, in each cinema one hall is booked for the Turkish and Irani movies. However, in Pakistan, we are not able to get over Indian film director Karan Johar’s movies, he added.

India has a huge film industry, which produces over 1,000 films a year. However, the revival of Pakistani film industry will take time, he said. He remarked that movies that are not commercial are not the priority of our film industry, adding that words such as ‘masala’ and ‘paisa wasool’ are used in our industry.



Habib University communication studies and design programme director Dr Framji Minwalla said that the young generation is facing difficulty in making movies because they don’t think about the world’s complexities.

“In order to develop a story based on some individuals and their obstacles, [the filmmaker] has to understand the complexities of human behaviour and relationships” he said. For those students who want to become a documentary maker, he asked them to think in terms of people and individuals, not issues. “Forget about issues, tell stories of people,” he said, adding that future filmmakers should at least watch 100 documentaries before they graduate.

He also advised the students to watch black and white movies as they quiet experimental. In their four years of graduation programme, the students should explore the diverse subjects, he added.

Public relations

At another session, titled ‘Public relations: Bringing Trends and Technologies into Classroom’, Asiatic public relation officer Mustafa Hussain said that the world is changing due to evolution of technology, especially in communication sector.

According to him, the anatomy of public relation professionals has also changed considerably because along with traditional media, social media has evolved as a platform for them. “Students need to be taught how they can use this platform strategically to manage public relations,” he said.

Editorial freedom

Speaking on ‘Editorial freedom and media economy’ Herald editor Badar Alam said that most of the parts of media economy are usually not covered in the media curriculum. “Courses on media ownership patterns and media ownership laws must be included in the curriculum of media studies departments.”

Journalist Ghazi Salahuddin said that he is surprised to see that students aspiring to become journalists have little to no interest in reading newspapers. This shows that the consumers of media are indifferent towards society and their own surroundings, he added.

Published in The Express Tribune, December 9^th, 2016.