While Pakistani cinema has grown leaps and bounds from where it was post the crash of Lollywood, the industry still faces a number of challenges – the most important being finances and funds. At the recently held Jagran Film Festival in India, filmmakers Khalid Ahmed, Sabiha Sumar and Shahbaz Sumar, who showcased their short films as part of the Zeal for Unity initiative, spoke at length about the constraints that Pakistani cinema still faces.
While Pakistani cinema has grown leaps and bounds from where it was post the crash of Lollywood, the industry still faces a number of challenges – the most important being finances and funds. At the recently held Jagran Film Festival in India, filmmakers Khalid Ahmed, Sabiha Sumar and Shahbaz Sumar, who showcased their short films as part of the Zeal for Unity initiative, spoke at length about the constraints that Pakistani cinema still faces.
“The Pakistani film industry - often tagged as Lollywood - died in the 1980s. There was no state support for the films and no training institutes. The government in Pakistan is not talking any initiatives. The army is doing it because they want to see films being made on their own terms,” Shahbaz told IANS. “Films have started coming back since the last five to 10 years. Over the last few years, there have been efforts made by privately owned organisations to increase number of theatres in Pakistan. Right now, there are only around 60 to 70 of them, I guess.”
Director Khalid Ahmed, however, felt the budget constraints were a bigger concern for the industry. “At the moment, we are only making small budget films in Pakistan because there is no recovery model. Only five to eight crore (Pakistani) rupees are spent on a film...not more than that. It’s at a very nascent stage. Only some years ago did people again start making films. Budget is a bigger constraint right now. When there will be a greater reach, then the investment will also increase,” he added.
Budgets have been a topic under discussion for a while now. And while on one end stakeholders have suggested that the solution is to increase the number of screens, a certain segment of the industry has also blamed it on the influx of Bollywood films that tend to overshadow local releases.
