Pakistan film industry fears 70% loss if ties with India worsen

[N.Siddiqui]

On the contrary Indian film industry will be loosing crores. Any big Indian film, 3-4 films per season is earning, on an average 30-34 crores from Pakistan, considering such Indian films in India earns about 200-300 crores with that huge size in India, it still makes it about 12%-15% profit from Pakistan, can be higher with 20% profit in a few cases.

So the loss will be for Indian film industry mainly, the the second smaller loss will be for the distributors and marketers in Pakistan, which can be made up by showing Hollywood films instead of the Bollywood initially till the number increases to 60-65 films per year in Pakistan.

Also it will give boost to local Pakistani film content as there will be a bigger market for it, remember demand and supply. Also with the current situation and the jingoistic feelings, people in Pakistan will be reluctant to see a Bollywood movie, which entails as watching an enemy country movie, with all the killings in Kashmir, helping an enemy country kind of feeling.

 

[Gentelman]

Only people who are going to be at loss are these namak haram distributors...
Those who are going to cinema will go, they'll watch Jannan or some Hollywood movie rathar than Sultan...
The criminal negligence was made by distributors of Shah by not promoting it enough and pushing some Indian movie just a while bach...
For revival of lollywood, partial ban and limiting bollywood is necessary.

 

[Cash GK]

The feeling is a permanent ban on Indian movies will result in theatres, multiplexes shutting down.
Pakistan’s film industry fears it may suffer a 70 per cent business loss if India-Pakistan ties worsen and Bollywood films are banned in the country.

The fear among the industry people has been growing as they feel that if the situation does not improve, there will be calls to ban Indian films eventually.

Bollywood, Hollywood matter

“I don’t want to sound pessimistic but the truth is there has only been a boom in the cinema industry in Pakistan in the last few years because of the release of latest Bollywood and Hollywood films,” says Nadeem Mandviwalla, a known exhibitor, distributor and owner of the Atrium chain of cineplexes.

“I just hope the ties don’t remain tense on long term basis. If there is a temporary ban, we can survive but if there is any permanent ban, you can expect a lot of cinema houses and multiplexes to close down,” he says.

Omair Alavi, a popular film critic, says that due to the increase in cinema screens and revenues, there has also been a resurgence of the Pakistani film industry.

Needed: 50 to 60 films a year

“We have seen a number of Pakistani films release and do well and others are also lined up for release. But for a cinema industry to survive you need to produce at least 50 to 60 films in a year which we are not doing at present,” he says.

Mr. Mandviwalla says 70 per cent of the business comes from Bollywood and Hollywood. “There is no alternative. If the ties worsen, it is going to affect everyone,” he says. He, however, says that previously when Indian films were banned in Pakistan, business flourished underground with the sale of pirated DVDs and other such materials.

“Now you have cable operators as well but I think if there is any ban it will also affect their programming,” he says.

‘Hope there will not be a ban’

Saleem Khan, who has been in the business for years, thinks there will not be a ban but if this happenes cinema owners might have to completely wrap up their business or shut a few screens to cut costs.

“We don’t produce enough films to sustain ourselves throughout the year. We need to produce at least over 50 films annually,” he says.

Former Sindh Board of Film Censors chairman Fakhr-e-Alam says any such ban will result in “going back to the days where our screens were shut down and converted into shopping malls or apartments because there weren’t enough movies.”

He feels there is only one hope for industry people in case of a ban on Bollywood films and that is the Pakistan government must provide funds for production of films.

Option: screen old Pak. films?

Cinepax Cinemas Assistant Marketing Manager Abid Ali Zaidi says if there is a “temporary” ban, the cinema chains will manage for a while by screening old Pakistani films.

“We are already planning to do that from October as an alternative,” Mr. Zaidi said.

Since Indian films were allowed to be imported and screened the cinema industry business has picked up rapidly in Pakistan with some Bollywood blockbusters even grossing the 100-crore rupees mark in Pakistan.


http://www.thehindu.com/news/intern...if-ities-with-india-worsen/article9158287.ece

you dont need to be upset about our loss. we have other way around.... we are happy to tolerate this big loss... you know what Indian film industry get more from Pakistan then its own Hindi speaking population ... please.... infect we love to take this loss. thanks God we will not have shity movies inside Pakistan anymore.. we love to pay billions to keep away our kids from Indian shity movies . if Indian dont play cricket with us we should not let Indian movies be watched in Pakistan. this should have arrange quit long before... but we know there are people in policy making not up to stander in pak ranks

 

[nana41]

Majority of Pakistani diaspora is Urdu speaker. While Indian movies are about India, Pakistanis (though they will deny very strongly) they are able to connect with them.

The same very people who would ask for ban on Indian movies, would watch them when they are alone in the night using pirated copies.

Indian films do not depict Indian culture anymore.They are glossy copies of Hollywood movies mostly.Even the title and most of the dialogues are in english and not in Hindi.Pakistan audience will be better off watching the real thing from Hollywood than Indian clones.

 

[FRF]

GOOD, All bollywood movies are straight up garbage and almost 90 % bland love stories. Feels good knowing India will lose so much potential revenue..

 

[django]

No problem it will be a temporary loss.
@Zibago @django @Moonlight

At the very least ban all hindian movies till Yasin Malik is released.Kudos

 

[Musafir117]

Even it loss 100% still a good business to cut off Bollywood trash and revive our industry from 0%

 

[SrNair]

I haven't watched a bollywood film in years. I feel most pakistanis have been moving away from them in favor of hollywood for a while now.. although indian punjabi films are somewhat popular.

Neitheir do I


On topic :We dont care but we dont know the feelings across the border

 

[Talwar e Pakistan]

Temporarily bad, long-term wise good.

This will surge our film industry revival.

 

[Zibago]

Bad for cinemas in short run fantastic for Filmhouses particularly ARY Films
@django @The Sandman @Moonlight

 

[Saleem]

http://images.dawn.com/news/1176334...n-bans-pakistani-talent-from-working-in-india

best news of the century.........

 

[M.Ghaznavi]

thank god

 

[SleepingLion]

lol that is funny!

 

[Flash_Ninja]

I haven't watched a bollywood film in years. I feel most pakistanis have been moving away from them in favor of hollywood for a while now.. although indian punjabi films are somewhat popular.

I haven't watched a Bollywood film that was made post 1990's. I still watch Punjabi films though, because they are less propaganda-ish and a lot more tasteful.

Also Indian Punjabi's I've met are a lot cooler than their fellow countrymen

 

[Yahoooooo!]

Majority of Pakistani diaspora is Urdu speaker.

You don't say??? I thought Arabs and Arabic would be more closely connected.