Re: Celebrating Defence Day?
I didn’t say history should be forgotten. You should celebrate your defence days and India should celebrate hers. Bollywood movies have only been showing recently but before were banned. If people are fans of the Khans and they like their movies then that would be shown. If they are good movies showing important themes like My name is Khan which was about discrimination against Muslims in the West, a theme people could relate to, then that would be shown. Not all Bollywood movies are shown some get censored and banned. A recent movie called Ranjhanaa was banned in pakistan even though the lead singer was Pakistani. Reason was because it showed a Hindu-Muslim love story but that also occurred in My name is Khan yet that was shown. Funny thing is it wasnt even a love story it was an unsuccessful one-sided love story which was not even successful. Bol movie was shown in Indian cinemas few years ago. Pakistani music, Pakistani artists holding concerts happen often in India and coke studio songs are liked by many Indians. I think the coke studio facebook page has few hundred thousand likes from india itself. Not sure how many Indian artists get to go to Pakistan or how many Indian artists get to perform or be part of Pakistani dramas. I know a few like Jagjit singh and kaliash kher got a chance. Some had their visas rejected. Pakistani tv channels might not be shown but people watch humtv on the net like people used to do in the days when bollywood was banned. Like my parents watch only humtv channels. They love Zindagi gulzar hai and ek pagal si larki. usually they prefer it over indian channel shows. We live overseas so our dish package includes indian and pakistani channels. Not sure if indian tv channels are freely allowed in Pakistan. Maybe rules changed recently because i thought previously they were banned because of the “bad” influence they would have. There was recent talk of introducing Pakistani channels in some article i read. I also read that ptv1 and ptv2 is shown in some parts of delhi..whether illegally i don’t know. There was this one channel called fida channel which showed pakistani singers like hamid Ali Khan, ghulam ali, nfak, rfak, mendi hassan and basically only had Pakistani singers. Qtv also showed for some time. In the 80s and 90s many Indian families in overseas places like Uk used to watch Pakistani dramas on cassettes. Recent shows like Humsafar have many fans from India. I think in the past India did show Pakistani dramas as i remember Ranbir Kapoor mention on youtube how his parents and family used to watch them together. India gave Pakistan most favoured nation status back in the 90s, India is yet to get one from Pakistan. I know those things are only symbolic but just to give an example that there are many inconsistencies.
So since Indian channels have mixed deals with Pakistani channels overseas and Indians overseas actually view both, will they be seen more positively to you? since they are not restrained by gov rules. What about Pakistani movies shown in Indian cinemas like Bol?
With comparisons a Pakistani facebook group banning bollywood movies has thousands of likes and a facebook group banning pakistani artists etc has like 93. Funny that as in India hard core right wing people want to ban bollywood because they believe it is appeasing too much to minorities and shows unrealistic love stories of people from different religions falling in love. My parents watch humtv and i know a few other Indian families and family friends who watch it. No other Indian person, of any religion, has said to them it is wrong to watch Pakistani dramas or listen to pakistani songs. Lot of these people are Hindu families. My brother, who is 22, watches some of the comedy shows on humtv and he enjoys it. I’ve never heard that so i don’t understand people who want to stop Pakistanis from watching Bollywood. Doesn’t make them any less Pakistani than Pakistanis watching US or UK shows. People should be free to watch what they want. My aunt and mausi watched Bol and said it was better than any other Bollywood movie at the time. None of us felt we were un-Indian for saying that. Art goes beyond boundaries.
**I’m just curious but are there many Pakistani tv channels that have shows where they bring Indians and Pakistanis together **like chote ustaad or saregamapa or sur kshetra or have mixed Indian/Pakistani judges? Do many Pakistani movies show Indians and Pakistanis getting along like friends/family with the setting being overseas like namaste london or dhan dana dan goal or jhootha hi sahi? Bollywood may have lot of garbage but it also has a lot of gems where it fosters harmony between indians and pakistanis. Would there be many pakistani movies/tv shows which would have a scene similar to this showing desi harmony? Akshay Kumar is a great rugby player - Namastey London - YouTube i would love it if i could be shown one even if it doesnt go to the extent of painting both flags on cheeks of the people in the scene. I’m just thinking of ways in how bollywood is appealing to wider diaspora reaching beyond indians.
Anyway, inconsistencies in censorship rules by the government do not affect the common people. It’s not like most people have a say in what media is allowed to be shown and what is not. Obviously Indian population is larger so in terms of film output so equal number of films won’t be produced if you compared both countries. Aman ki asha isnt a government initiative it is an initiative by the people for the people. so why blame it for things not in its control? If aman ki asha were in control pakistani tv channels would be playing in India from right now. what about the Indian fans of humsafar? Or the indian channel directors who wrote rave reviews of humsafar?http://rangmunchtv.blogspot.com.au/2011/10/international-segment-humsafar-journey.html
Also i should mention that my Pakistani friend tells me about new bollywood movies that I don’t know about and i always inform her of new Pakistani movies like Bol, which she watched after i told her. She really liked it. I guess maybe it’s because we’re females so we naturally like to think of similarities that bring us together.