During tensions with India, the Pakistani government hastily bans Hindi films, but the entire entertainment industry there has to bear the brunt of it. Whenever Bollywood films were banned there, theatres were closed one after the other. In this report, the condition of Pakistan’s entertainment industry since the year 2019.
The current state of the entertainment industry of Pakistan is an example of the problems faced by Pakistan without India. Whenever there was a ban on the screening of Indian films, Pakistan’s entertainment industry faltered. Today, the business of the Pakistani film industry is running only because of Fawad Khan.
Earlier, films of Dilip Kumar, Dev Anand, Amitabh Bachchan, and in recent years, films of Salman, Aamir, and Shahrukh, as well as Sanjay Dutt, Ranveer Singh, and Ranbir Kapoor, have been watched secretly. According to its viewpoint, Pakistan did not allow the screening of films like Ek Tha Tiger, Raazi, and Haider, which showed cross-border terrorism, but has done a lot of business by showing films like Dilwale, Sanju, and Bajrangi Bhaijaan.
You will be surprised to know that the theatres of Pakistan have been buzzing with the screening of Indian films. Ordinary Pakistanis were also entertained a lot. But in 2019, when the screening of Indian films was again banned in Pakistan, the earnings from theatres once again collapsed.
Pakistan itself was responsible for this because the Pakistani government had taken this step in response to India’s surgical strike. The ill effect of this was that the audience was absent and the theatres were empty. Cinema halls started closing down. Due to the closure of halls, lakhs of people associated with this business became unemployed.
Whenever films were banned, the theatres remained empty
It is worth noting that even before the Pulwama attack, whenever there was tension between India and Pakistan, the governments of both countries had banned the films of both countries. A few days ago, after the Pahalgam terrorist attack in Jammu and Kashmir, the Indian government also banned Fawad Khan and Vaani Kapoor’s upcoming film Abir Gulaal. Let us tell you that even before 2019, in 1965, during the war between the two countries, Pakistan had banned the screening of Indian films.
However, according to media reports, despite the ban, businessmen associated with Pakistan’s entertainment industry continued to illegally show pirated versions of Indian Punjabi and Hindi films with big star casts. But this illegal trend could not continue for long. As the technology of film production and distribution changed, the number of pirated films in Pakistan started decreasing. This affected the business of the cinema halls there. Due to not showing Indian films, cinema halls started closing down one after the other.
New theatres opened in Pakistan after the ban was lifted in 2007
People used to watch the films of these Indian stars a lot in Pakistan. Before Salman and Shahrukh, among male actors, especially the films of Rajesh Khanna, Amitabh Bachchan, and Mithun Chakraborty were very popular. Among actresses, films of Nargis, Meena Kumari, Waheeda Rehman, Mumtaz to Hema Malini, and Reena Roy have been watched a lot.
Pakistan’s film industry is in a bad shape
Interestingly, after the ban on Indian films was lifted in 2007, the business of closed cinema halls in Pakistan started to flourish again. Even new cinema halls were opened. After this, Pakistan’s entertainment industry flourished for a long time on the strength of Indian films. But after 2019, Pakistan’s film industry collapsed again. Today, the economy of the Pakistani film industry, which is called Lollywood on the lines of Hollywood and Bollywood, has become poor. According to media reports, only about 135 single-screen theaters are left in Pakistan. At the same time, the pace of multiplex projects is also slow.
In the last three decades, cinema halls have been shutting down continuously. Earlier, there used to be more than a thousand single-screen cinema halls here. In these too, Indian Punjabi and Hindi films have been doing good business. According to media reports, there used to be 257 cinema halls in Sindh, including Karachi, but now only 39 are left. Similarly, Pakistan’s Punjab province used to have the highest number of 611 cinema halls, but now only 90 are left. Talking about other regions, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa has 6 instead of 6,8, and Balochistan has 3 out of 24, while there is not a single cinema hall in Gilgit Baltistan and PoK.
Multiplex projects have also been cancelled in Pakistan
The situation also shows that many multiplex projects have been cancelled due to a lack of audience in Pakistan. The reason for this is the ban on Indian films and the increasing trend of watching films on OTT. Talking about India, there are still 4,745 single-screen theatres left here instead of 24,000 during the last three decades. Due to a lack of audience, multiplex projects are not able to move forward in Pakistan, whereas multiplex projects are continuously expanding in India. As of today, there are about 3000 multiplex screens in India.
Pak film industry thanks to Fawad Khan
In recent years, Pakistani actor Fawad Khan’s only film, The Legend of Maula Jatt, has done big business due to its modern presentation of the new era. This film has crossed the collection of 400 crores. But neither before nor after this, any Pakistani film been able to cross the collection of 100 crores. While if we talk about Indian films, the number of films included in the club of 100 crores is in hundreds, the number of films collecting 400-500 crores is also 25. The most recent film, Chhava, has done this amazing feat.
Pakistani artists found love in India
However, there is no doubt that many Pakistani artists have won the hearts of millions of Indians with their talent. Their talent has also been appreciated a lot in the Indian film industry. From the late Manoj Kumar’s film Clerk to the current Abir Gulaal film, many Pakistani stars have been included in Hindi films as actors, actresses, or singers. Mohammad Ali-Zeba in 1989’s Clerk, Zeba Bakhtiar in Henna, Salma Agha in Nikaah, Fawad Khan in Ae Dil Hai Mushkil, or singers of the past from Noor Jehan and Ghulam Ali to Adnan Sami (now Indian) have received a lot of love. The stories and comedy of Pakistani TV shows have been very popular in India.