Cinema Industry in Pakistan

Brief History of Cinema in Pakistan:

The first cinema of Karachi was Star Cinema, Bunder Road. It was built in 1917-1918.

Jubilee Cinema on Marston Road (Waheed Murad Road) was the first cinema which was inaugurated in September 1947 after partition.

Prince Cinema on M.A. Jinnah Road has the highest number of 1.322 seats.

Murree Drive Inn Cinema on University Road was the biggest ever cinema with a capacity of 700 cars.

Princess Cinema on M.A. Jinnah Road with its 132 and Scala Cinema on Garden Road with its 144 seats were two smallest cinemas.

The peak period for cinemas was in 1977 when 110 cinemas were running in Karachi.

The first Cinema-Scoop screen was installed in Rex Cinema, Saddar Karachi.

The first 70mm machinery was installed in Rivoli Cinema on Marsten Road.

Film Production History:

In undivided India, Lahore (then in the Punjab) was important as a showbiz centre. It had an established film-making centre. The first film ever to be made in a Lahore studio was Delhi Express (1935) and thereafter many Urdu and Punjabi films emerged from Lahore every year. The partition of India into two independent states - India and Pakistan, caused irreparable damage to film production in Lahore. Most of Lahore's film producers were Hindu and as the city fell to the side of the Islamic state of Pakistan, they migrated to India. This deprived Hollywood, as Lahore is referred to in film circles, of much needed investment and expertise in film production and distribution.

Fortunately, the outflow from Lahore was accompanied by an inflow into the city. Affected by the same political change, a number of talented Muslims who have established themselves in Bombay's (now Mumbai) film circles, moved back to Lahore. Prominent among them were film producer Syed Shaukat Hussain Rizvi, his wife actress and singer Noor Jehan, actress Swarn Lata, actor Nazeer, director W. Z. Ahmad, director Luqman, director Sabtain Fazli, music director Feroze Nizami and music director Khawaja Khursheed Anwar. These creative artists laid the foundation of the Pakistani film industry. They were also responsible for producing some of the best films ever made in Lollywood.

Current Cinema situation:

The entire film market of Pakistan is basically divided into two traditional circuits for the purpose of distribution— one comprising Punjab and Frontier province and the other Sindh and Balochistan. The former is a much larger circuit which still has some 300 cinemas, some sixty in and around Lahore alone, as compared to the later which comprise just about a little over 100 cinemas. However, these figures quoted above are only estimates and the numbers of main cinemas available for release of new local movies are much less.

In Karachi, there are around 120 cinemas. 35 out of them are running. These include Bambino, Capri, Nishat, Cineplex and Metro. 85 of them are closed. (Star, Super, Taj Mahal, Regent, etc).

Distribution Arrangements:

Three distribution arrangements are used in Pakistan though MG and outright are the two most frequent used systems. The marketing of films is a complex procedure and though the famous producers and directors are able to sell their films easily a less famous or known producer or director usually has a hard time to market his products. The bottom line is that the bigger the name of a director the easier it is to sell the films and vice versa.

Decrease in number of cinemas:

The sharp decrease in the number of cinemas has given the owners to dictate their terms at the expense of the producers and distributors. Observers say that the exhibitors are always ensured a profit irrespective of whether a film is a success or a flop. In short, exhibitors are blamed to share all the profits but none of the risks and losses which are the part and parcel of film production and distribution.

Exclusive Interview of Mr. Javed Jabbar

Javed Jabbar is a legend of advertising in Pakistan, a famous politician, former information minister and an intellectual. He is father of renowned producer Mehreen Jabbar. In 1976, he wrote, directed and released the first and only English language film of Pakistan, ‘Beyond the last mountain’.

The following questions were asked from him in the interview and some excellent answers were obtained.

Question1: What, according to you, are the reasons for a steep decline in the quality and quantity of the Pakistani cinema and film industry?

1) “A ban on Indian films during the war of 1965: Initially it may have had a positive effect in a sense that a new vigor came into the film industry but very soon it happened that because people were unable to watch Indian films, some Pakistani producers started imitating and borrowing from the Indian cinema to cater the local population’s demand. So originality and creativity which should have been ‘Pakistani’ became a pale imitation of the Indian formula. Even though we share a lot from India, we have commonalities but we are a distinct Pakistani nation and our cinema should have tried to reflect our peculiar character. So the government’s stance of supporting the film industry from competition yielded adverse results.

2) Advent of new technology: In the 70’s, the advancements in media technology led to the decline of cinema culture. The educated (creative) gentry started resorting to television and radio rather than going to cinema as cinema was no longer offering the creative challenge and the quality which television was offering. This also relates directly relates to the ban formerly imposed on the Indian films. If our cinema was competing with the Indian cinema, we would have been successful in producing creative and quality movies. Furthermore in retaliation to the Pakistani ban on Indian movies, India also banned Pakistani so our producers also lost a significant Indian market which they were catering before the ban. Also India lost a small Pakistani market in comparison to the loss of Pakistan which lost a relatively much larger Indian market with great potential to grow. The ban helped India in growing its regional film industries. Marathi cinema, Telegu Cinema and Tamil Cinema are some examples. But Pakistan was unable to develop its regional film industries which include the Punjabi cinema, very weak Sindhi cinema and Pushto cinema. These regional cinemas also failed to cater to the masses as they were inclined towards production of vulgar and obscene movies mostly with same old romantic formulas. “No Pathan family is interested in going to watch a Pushto movie because of the vulgarity involved”, he said.

3) The Policy on censorship in Pakistan: Pakistani government’s policy on censorship was much more rigid than compared to that of India. It did not allowed freedom of expression on many sensitive social and political issues. So the Pakistani cinema did not had this opportunity to reflect or express freely the reality of Pakistan, they were only expressing song and dance and old school romantic formulas constantly. Whereas Indian government was allowing there cinema to talk about economic, social and cultural issues.

4) Advent of portability: Just because Indian films were banned in cinemas, people actually started resorting to smuggled Indian movie cassettes and opted for watching the movies on VCR’s. So that led to a decline in cinema culture and the number of people going to cinemas. And consequently, the cinema owners were not able to generate enough revenue to upgrade and maintain their cinemas. So the quality of cinemas went down.

5) Bad taxation policy: Heavy excise duties were imposed on every cinema ticket, one time it used to be even fifty percent of the total ticket price. This was an extremely wrong policy because throughout the world, cinema is known as a cheap form of entertainment. Furthermore, the money taken from the ticket could have been reinvested into the cinema by improving studios and developing training centers. National Film Development Corporation was also introduced in 1973 but it failed miserably because of lack of government funding.

6) Lack of modernization: The cinema owners did not upgraded or modified the condition of cinemas. Lack of hygiene led to a decline in the number of families visiting the cinema. When the cinema attendance went down, investors became hesitant in investing in the production and distribution in the film industry. Thus, a chain effect occurs.”

Question2: Are Indian films destroying our local film market?

“To some extent it is true. For example when I made my movie ‘Ramchand Pakistani’, me and my wife worked quite hard on the script and all the preliminary requirements but when it came to funding, we were quiet short of capital. Unlike the west, the financial institutions here are extremely hesitant in investing in new films but fortunately eighteen people from my friends and family raised the capital required. We made the film and miraculously it did quite well from the beginning. The problem came in when the Pakistani cinema owners were showing ‘Ramchand Pakistani’ a blockbuster was released in Bollywood and the cinema owners refused to play my movie anymore. They started showing the Indian movie instead of showing our movie which was quite unfair. But at the same time it was reasonable because an Indian blockbuster can easily generate more revenue than a Pakistani movie. So it is true that Indian films can take away the space or time which should go to a Pakistani movie. But there is a very feasible solution to this problem too. In many countries of the world there is a law that every cinema has to give a minimum percentage of time to films made in that country. If we had that law the Pakistani cinemas could have played ‘Ramchand Pakistani’ and the Indian blockbuster at the same time. These type of laws are required if we want to save our films from unfair competition.”

Question3: How do you think we can successfully fund the independent film makers?

“There is a very good solution for this problem. A very small percentage of every ticket should go into something like a ‘National Cinema Finance Fund’. If you contribute one or two percent of every ticket to a fund like this you can easily generate enough movies to finance all the independent movies in this country. It will work in a way that if you have a good story and script, you can submit it and an independent commission will review and evaluate it. Then the fund can be used to provide the capital depending on your idea and plans regarding mobilization of funds. Furthermore, the fund will have an exclusive right to recover its own money first from the profits earned. This is done in whole Europe and it has been quite successful and many good films have been made this way.


Coffee with Mr. Javed Jabbar

Some Misconceptions regarding the reasons of decline of the cinema industry (Highlighted by different stakeholders we interviewed):

1. Zia’s Islamization policies - the most important factor towards the decline of Pakistani cinema?

People have a misconception that President Zia ul-Haq's religion-based policies are responsible for the industry's demise. Many cinemas were shut down, the rest were heavily taxed. New lawsNew Laws: see Las Casas, Bartolomé de. that required producers to have college degrees thinned the ranks of moviemakers.
With the top-shelf creative talent dropping out of the flagging industry, scripts got worse and Pakistanis stopped going to movies.

However, when raising this issue with Mr.Javed Jabbar, he said, “Completely blaming Zia’s polices is an excuse because right next door to us in Iran, in 1979, a revolution took place. The Ayatollahs came and imposed severe restrictions on the Iranian Film industry but just because the industry was not as vulnerable as its Pakistani counterpart was, it sustained and is still producing some of the best movies in the world. Just because the Iranian cinema had the creative potential they found their ways of expressing themselves without breaking the rules. For example in some movies they expressed everything through the eyes of a child in a very subtle manner that they were able to convey their message without breaking the law. The same could have been done under Zia’s rule but Pakistani film industry was already lacking creativity so it further declined. Russian film industry is also a good example; it also prospered and flourished under strict communist regimes.”

2. Piracy - the most contributive factor in the decline of film industry?

An article in the indie-filmmaking.blogspot.com indicated that piracy has not only troubled low/no budget filmmaker but even to big studios and huge production houses. Pakistan film industry is one of the most severe victims of piracy. Pakistan is ranked at the top 3 countries involved in piracy. The Indian movies as soon released in India are also releases in Pakistan on DVDs and CDs. The local cable networks purchase them and show them on cable. It results as any Pakistani movie released in Pakistan doesn’t get the attention which it should have received.

However, when talking about piracy, Mr.Javed Jabbar stated, “First of all, piracy is a worldwide phenomenon and it is nearly impossible to control it. But we have observed that if a minimal cooperation is done by the government and the distributors, we can control it to some extent. For example in ‘Ramchand Pakistanis’ case the DVD sales were not affected by the piracy issue because Geo was a remarkable distributor. It’s all about giving the consumer proper knowledge and awareness as you cannot enjoy the quality of an original DVD in a movie that was illegally copied. But at the same time, within the 48 hours of my film’s release in India I got calls from my friends in Boston and New York saying that your DVD is easily available in America. Because the Indian people are so bad or so good at piracy that within 48 hours they recorded a pirated DVD. Now you can imagine how difficult it is to control privacy even in Western countries. So we have to learn to go along with it. But in America too, they have very strict laws to curb piracy and they are quite successful in saving their own local movies from it. In conclusion, we cannot stop piracy but we can reduce it to the extent that it does not affect our film and cinema markets in an adverse manner.”

Moreover, Mr. Adil Mundviwala (owner of the atrium cinema) said, “We cannot stop piracy. People should realize to and come to cinemas; this is what cinemas are for.”

Revival of film and cinema industry:

The cinema business, which had been shrinking since the early 1980s, has recorded a stellar growth of 70 percent over the last three years on the back of import of movies, particularly Indian, and the advent of 3-D cinema in the country. Along with this initiative the Pakistani government also lifted its 40-year ban on screening Indian movies in Pakistani cinemas.

With the sudden re-emergence of Bollywood in Pakistani cinemas and the success of Shoaib Mansoor’s film “Khuda Kai Liye,” there has been hope that the film industry may dust itself off and get back on its feet. At the moment Shoaib Mansoor’s new film Bol is being shot in Lahore, Jami’s film is under production along with Bilal Lashari and Sabiha Sumar’s films also being developed in the country this year.

It seems that the industry is finally getting the boost it needs in developing the film industry’s infrastructure again.

Umair Nasir, a recent graduate from the National College of Art’s film program, sees a bright future for the film industry. Nasir thinks that since movies are being shot and produced in Pakistan again, a pool of technical people is being created. Szabist, National College of Arts, BNU, Iqra University and the Karachi University all now offer some sort of degree in film making or production. The Indus Valley School of Art and Architecture too is planning on starting its film program soon.

Jamshed Raza Mahmood, or Jami as he is more famously known, adds that with newer technology and the introduction of HDSLR camera’s being used for filming, the film industry has been revolutionized.

Mr. Javed Jabbar would agree, “It’s time to take advantage of the digital revolution,” adding that filmmakers can distribute online, and if not for commercial success, they can always make films for a festival.

Nawab Hasan Siddique, an analyst of Pakistan film distribution business, said the addition of Atrium Cinema in Karachi has taken the Pakistani cinema industry into the 21st century.

Nadeem H Mandviwalla, Managing Director of Mandviwalla Entertainment, says that the 3D cinemas will soon bring back the lost glory. “Atrium has bucked the trend and cine-goers that we lost in the last 25 years are gradually returning,” he said. “Yes, it’s expensive, but at the same time a different experience altogether.”

Moreover, Adil Mandviwala, owner of the atrium cinema, says, “Right now this is progressing. We are moving towards more cinemas in Karachi. It’s about getting a good time, masses are realizing now. Awareness is increasing, masses are coming. They know now what watching movies are.”

When asked about the future, he said, “We are now in Karachi and Lahore – now we want to open up in Multan Faisalabad etc.”

Rizwan Machiyara, owner of the Machiyara Builders and Developers, plans to open two malls with 3D cinemas next year, one each in Karachi and Lahore, and aims to launch eight more such plazas in the next 10 years.

With the digital revolution and social media sites being used by filmmakers all over the world, is it time for Pakistan to join in and bring upon a positive change in the current cinema and film industry.