FILM COLUMN: NO BOLLYWOOD IN PAKISTAN?
Lollywood Thinks Bollywood is Cramping Its Style, Seeks Ban on Hindi Cinema
India’s acclaimed Hindi film industry, affectionately known as Bollywood, seems to be skating on thin ice in Pakistan, where, according to news reports, a group of Pakistani writers and actors have legally sought to ban movies imported from its neighboring country to the southeast. It is unclear whether the potential ban, if endorsed by the government in Islamabad, would include the whole of Indian cinema or just Bollywood, yet the group of artists, filmmakers, and writers truly believe their film industry, based in Lahore, does not stand a chance of survival if Hindi movies continue to infiltrate Pakistan.
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At the heart of the issue is audience size. The unified front -- which reportedly includes Pakistani actors Moamar Rana, Shaan, Meera, Sangeeta, Syed Noor and Shahid, directors Aslam Dar, Altaf Hussain, Masood Butt and Pervaiz Rana, and producers Jani Malik and Chaudhry Kamran -- are not too thrilled that film crowds are watching Indian films in far greater numbers than Pakistani films.
“Our protest is not only to ban screenings of Indian films, but to protect Pakistani films. It is very sad that we see very few screenings of Pakistani movies in our own country. There are very few distributors who actually want to buy Pakistani films, and that's why our industry is suffering tremendous losses,” filmmaker Syed Nood said in a released statement. “Our aim is to revive our films. Therefore, we need the support of Indian filmmakers to come forward and also do their films' shoots in Pakistani locations, and use our artistes in their movies. Indian cinema has a huge market and they are damaging our industry. We are planning to have some more meetings, but as of now, we have not come to any final decision.”
On the other side of the fence, Bollwood’s Mahesh Bhatt urged his Pakistani brethren to seek alternative solutions to bolster its own film industry, adding that completely shutting out any aspect of Indian cinema is far from a viable solution.
"The establishment in Pakistan has supported our films, and now that they are facing internal opposition from the industry, we must understand that this is a tightrope – this fight to protect the indigenous product,” Mr. Bhatt told the press. “Perhaps they can collect some sort of tax from foreign films and use that for the Pakistani industry, instead of shutting doors completely on us.”
A case can most certainly be made on both sides. For the fledgling film industry since the early 1990s, attempts to revitalize Lollywood have failed to maintain any level of consistency or success for nearly 20 years. Conversely, if one were to apply basic market principles to this situation, it could easily be argued that the reason why Pakistani audiences are flocking to Bollywood and not Lollywood is because one industry, at least in the eyes of the consumer, offers a far superior product than the other.
It is the latter notion that the current campaign by Pakistani actors and filmmakers almost falls flat on its face. Perhaps it is a case of denial trumping over logic. If audiences are choosing Hindi instead of Urdu or Punjabi language films, logic conventionally suggests that the natural response is to improve the qualitative products offered by Lollywood. If offered comparable products, in theory and quite possibly in practice, Lollywood would at least be able to compete with Bollywood and perhaps even surpass the Hindi film industry (in terms of attracting large audiences).
There is nary a positive interpretation to be extrapolated by Pakistan’s film industry seeking a ban on at least a portion of Indian cinema. Perhaps Lollywood is in denial about the poor quality of its work. Or maybe the group of actors, directors, and writers know they are offering a weak product but feel it is easier to just ban Bollywood instead of pushing themselves to create better content.
The biggest peril in Lollywood seeking a ban on Bollywood and/or Indian films is that it offers no solutions to better itself. Instead of Lollywood proactively seeking ways to improve itself in order to keep up with the top cinematic industries of India -- such as Tollywood (Telugu), Bollywood (Hindi), and Kollywood (Tamil) -- its leaders are being reactive in believing that keeping the big boys outside the sand box will somehow allow those left to stay inside to get better as a result.
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Yet, no viable recommendations have been made to help Lollywood do what it ultimately must if it seeks to keep up with the likes of the Hindi, Telugu, Tamil, even Marathi and Bengali industries: point blank, to improve the obviously poor quality of its content if it wants to exist and compete.
Born in 1896, about 17 years before the first of India's many cinematic industries arrived, Lollywood has struggled as a whole since the end of its Golden Era in 1970, coincidentally around the same time that East Pakistan split off and reformed as the independent Bangladesh. The industry was somewhat kept afloat by the success of the Urdu film Dosti in 1971, which reportedly dominated box offices across Pakistan for nearly two years. However, as the 1970s progressed, the advent of the VCR caused Lollywood to fall into a tailspin, what with illegal pirating suddenly running rampant.
Political upheaval in the 1980s caused Lollywood to all but collapse, with the industry essentially falling flat on its face at the onset of the 1990s. It was not until General Pervez Musharraf’s rise to power in the early 2000s when Lollywood was given some life. A previous ban on Indian cinema was reportedly lifted in 2005 and, ironically with some help from Mr. Bhatt, a swath of promising new filmmakers began to sprout up in Pakistan. Even a few film festivals, such as the Kara Film Festival, established themselves across the country.
Ironically, amidst the clamor, horror genre films have been representing Pakistan quite well on the international film festival circuit, all without a government-endorsed ban. The social-themed Khuda Ke Liye, the sci-fi flick Freedom Sound, and the recently acclaimed Mod and Bol have all drawn traction and praise. So there is hope yet that Lollywood can foster successful filmmakers, despite Bollywood’s existence in Pakistan.
As such, seeking a ban on any form of Indian cinema – Bollywood or otherwise – is as much an affirmative solution to Pakistan’s cinematic ails as placing used bubble gum to clog a leaky crack in a dam’s wall. Sure, the act may appease certain problems at the very moment. However, without ever addressing the systemic structural damages, the entire wall and foundation are fully unsound and ripe for destructive collapse.
Lollywood has already suffered a huge collapse, and the industry has been waiting more than 40 years to arise from the ashes. If Lollywood would only stop running its mouth at Indian cinema and instead turn its attention to strengthening the core of its own infrastructure, perhaps, just perhaps, the everyday Pakistani moviegoer will choose to spend his or her hard-earned rupee on an Urdu film.
