With the ties between India and Pakistan straining every day, businesses on both sides of the border get set to be affected. With reports claiming that actor Fawad Khan has gone back to Pakistan and does not wish to return, the film industry is bracing up for impact. Pakistan’s film industry especially is fearful of an impending ban on Bollywood movies, with PTI reporting that the fraternity is set to suffer a 70% loss in its business.
“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,” said Nadeem Mandviwalla, exhibitor, distributor and owner of the Atrium chain of cineplexes to PTI.
“I just hope the ties don’t remain tense on long-term basis. Even if there is a temporary ban we can survive but if there is any permanent ban you can expect lot of cinema houses and multiplexes to close down,” Mandviwalla added.
A popular film critic, Omair Alavi said that the influx of Bollywood films has helped the Pakistani film industry grow, as more revenue has increased the number of cinema screens in the country. “We have seen 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 said.
Former Sindh Board of Film Censors chairman, Fakhr-e-Alam, said any such ban would 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’.
