After the ban on Indian movies and content by the cinema owners and film distributors as a result of the Kashmir dispute; to bring a positive change for cinema in Pakistan, they will now screen Irani and Turkish movies for the audience. Alongside Irani and Turkish movies, there are news’ of screening Chinese and South Korean movies as well.
The film distribution company, IMGC’s Chairman Shaikh Amjad Rashid and Mohsin Yaseen of Cinepax management spoke regarding the screening of foreign films in Pakistan.
“It’s in the initial states right now. We’ve decided to screen films from Iran and Turkey to fill the gap of Indian films,” said Rashid.
“Yes. We are looking at different options from around the world to fill the gap, as Turkish dramas had a good following in Pakistan, we feel their movies will have a good impact too. Currently, we only play films from Hollywood, Bollywood and Pakistan,” said Mohosin Yaseen, Management of Cinepax, Karachi.
The decision has come forth as a reason towards the insufficient number of local movies, which are not enough to sustain the Pakistani cinemas.
According to Mohsin Yaseen, “Hollywood has a set number of releases around the year and these films have a certain market following. Bollywood has a huge market following but due to the political scenario there will always be uncertainty. Pakistani movies are coming in but they are limited in quantity, and are not enough to run 52 weeks of cinema business in a year. And Iranian films have good international repute, some Iranian directors have won international awards as well.”
Since both agree that this change won’t be permanent, the chairman states; “If the ban on Indian films is lifted, this will fizzle out because they (Iranian and Turkish films) will not yield a profitable response; they’re very different from Pakistani culture.”
