For the first time Pakistani film industry has failed to release a movie on Eid

Posted on Nov 19th, 2009 | Comments (0)

For the first time in the history of Pakistani cinema, no film would be released on the occasion of Eid-ul-Azha. Pakistani cinema houses would remain vacant and film goers would be forced to watch Indian films. Pakistani Cinema Owners Association’s former chairman Jahanzaib Baig said in a news conference in Lahore that it is a critical time for the people related to Pakistani film industry that not a single film is going to be released on Eid. He also said that the Pakistani government and the concerned authorities should help restore this vanishing industry

The factors which contributed to the decline of Pakistani film industry are the inception of television and the infiltration of non-artistic financiers, who had no or little background, either in the arts, or business.

Consequently, senior Pakistani film-makers (directors and composers including) went into voluntary exile and the Pakistani industry was taken over by those rich people who invested money for purposes other than artistic.

Pakistani cinema or what's left of it is coming to an end. Though it wasn't always this way. Back in the 1960s and '70s, Lahore buzzed with movie shoots, red-carpet premieres and box-office hits. The Pakistani film industry has always been based here, and though it didn't have the restraint or dazzle of Bombay's Bollywood, Pakistani cinema thrived in a country staking out an identity distinct from its Indian neighbor.