Re: ARY digital
How is it "middle eastern"?
I thought their main station is operating out of London and that's where they started from?
They're all "Pakistani" channels, the only issue is that they're broadcasting from another country since in Pakistan they would have faced problems since the gov't was interfering in their operations. That was pre-Musharraf, though I think. The karachi stations don't have a problem at least. But I guess its easier to broadcast from outside.
Anyhoo, issue is not that. Pakistani film industry is almost non-existant at this point anyway. If it existed and had its foundations established strongly, then I don't think this would be a problem.
We just do not have enough movies being made on a regular basis for the Pakistani independent channels to promote them. There must be something to promote in order to promote it. Hence why when you see one movie coming out, like recently it was that Reema movie, these channels try their best to advertise it. But what can they do? Show you previews of the new reema movie in every commercial break, plus feature it in every magazine/talk show?
TV stations would never shy away from promoting the Pakistani film industry, if there were movies to be promoted. There, are however, almost none at this moment. Reema's movie was promoted, and it opened in theatres. That's it. There is no other movie out at the moment. Pehla Pehla Pyar is still awaiting release, and you can already see Mr. Lucman's comments on GS on why the movie is being upheld. I can't think of any other movie out there right now that is ready to release and needs promotion.
I've been following Lollywood's situation since 8 years ago or more actually. These past 2-3 years have been especially DRY in terms of releases. I would say this past year alone has been ridiculously empty of releases. Even the typical punjabi gujjar movies did not last a week or two at the box office. Cinemas are shutting down left and right, and converted into shopping malls or apartments. They're at an all time low, unfortunately.
I'm hoping that this vacuum will allow others to come in and produce movies. There are other threads in this forum on what other movies are currently under production, but I think they're all in the beginning stages, except Lucman's which is ready to go. Now yes, I think ARY and GEO need to give some coverage and news on these movies, so that we can have something to keep hope on. I actually emailed them on it, but of course, I got no response.