Feroz Khan

The Pakistani film industry has not been at a more critical stage since a steady stream of films started populating our theatres. Since the two countries almost went to war in February, with Indian films banned in the region, there is an opportunity for Pakistani films to step up and prove their strength and hopefully fill the gap left behind by big weights from Bollywood.

This is certainly a challenging job, considering that Indian movies are released throughout the year and on the two corresponding Eid holidays, Pakistani movies typically appear in bulk. Since the Zia period, owning a cinema has been a risky venture, what followed with the entertainment tax levied on filmmakers, the closure of cinemas, and the subsequent era of terrorism, along with the on and off ban on Indian films by their respective governments, all of which enabled the collapse of our once imperial cinema empire

In the past, when they coincided with Pakistani films to allow the latter to optimise their benefit, governments were generous enough to postpone Indian film releases. But the industry is in an especially precarious situation, with Indian films out of our multiplexes for some time and our own films missing the pull that a Salman Khan film brings.

In addition, only a handful of Pakistani films are released each year, leaving cinemas around the country hungry for material, and relying on Hollywood films for funding is not a feasible option, since the audience is far smaller for those films.

The progress made in the number of our films, their quality and, most importantly, the trust shown by Pakistani film-goers in our own new wave of films is very promising. But it is yet to be seen if they will continue to succeed in the post-Indian movie-ban period.