Pakistan looks to Bollywood to revive ailing film industry

A special task force formed by Pakistan to revive its film industry will be visiting Mumbai to learn from Bollywood.


Ians September 18, 2010

PANAJI: A special task force formed by Pakistan to revive its film industry will be visiting Mumbai to learn from Bollywood, a senior Pakistani senate committee chairman said here Saturday.

Speaking to reporters in Panaji, Nilofar Bakhtiar, chairman of a senate committee on culture and tourism, said she would be lining up meetings for the 16-member task force with top Bollywood personalities.

"We recently formed a task force to revive Pakistani cinema in which we have leading filmmakers as members. If they come to India, it would have good impact on our industry and future relations of both the countries," said Bakhtiar, who is leading a delegation of Pakistani officials and filmmakers to the South Asian Film Festival (SAFF), which is underway in Goa.

"Indian cinema is extremely advanced and we want Indian filmmakers to work with us. We also want training opportunities for our actors and directors in India," Bakhtiar said.

"It took us a long time and tremendous pressure to allow Indian cinema to be aired in Pakistan. We would like India to reciprocate," she said, adding that Indian TV channels were open to the Pakistani public and were tremendously popular there.

In the recent past, musicians and actors from Pakistan have crossed over to India seeking opportunities. Recent examples are Ali Zafar's Tere Bin (Laden) and Mona Liza's Kajraare.

COMMENTS (17)

Sidharth | 13 years ago | Reply Well, I for one truly agree with Anoop here. Like India, Pakistan has a great history of culture. Infact, some of the sufi numbers by the cross-over pakistani artists are quite a flame here but then, when it comes to Hindi Cinema, Pakistan's film industry cannot be a match. Of course there can be and there should be a healthy exchange of talent accross the border but for it to stand and compete with regional cinema in India, let alone the Hindi film industry, is just NOT possible!
Rehan | 13 years ago | Reply i really hope lollywood does NOT copy bollywood! bollywood is trying to be so western its sad! leave hollywood to hollywood! pakistan should improve yes but not westernize and bollywood shodul go back to old bollywood, not this new garbage
VIEW MORE COMMENTS
Replying to X

Comments are moderated and generally will be posted if they are on-topic and not abusive.

For more information, please see our Comments FAQ