Pakistani cinemas start showing Indian films again

KARACHI: Pakistani movie theatres began screening Bollywood films again on Monday, ending an 11-week boycott in response to political and military tensions with India, theatre officials said.

Some theatre owners said the restoration was because the tension was easing, but others said it was because audiences had dropped sharply since the boycott that began on Sept 30. In Karachi, the Atrium Cinema started with a screening of the Indian sports romantic comedy "Freaky Ali".

Still, the screenings were kept low key, with no publicity posters and scant attendance in theatres visited by Reuters. “The absence of Bollywood content from theatres resulted in losing over 80 percent of customers,” estimated Khurram Gultasab, general manager at Super Cinemas, which runs 10 cinemas in Punjab.

Indian films are popular both at the cinema and on bootlegged DVDs in Pakistan. "If Bollywood films are not resumed, cinemas will be forced to close down," Gultasab said. Nadeem Mandviwalla, whoseMandviwalla Entertainment runs eight cinemas in Karachi and the capital, Islamabad, said the resumption of Bollywood films was a step towards warming relations. "Someone has to take a step towards bringing normalcy back so we have initiated the process to bring back peace and harmony," Mandviwalla said.