Pakistan looks to Bollywood to revive ailing film industry

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.