How Come Pakistanis Never Watch Lollywood Movies???

Entertainment Showbiz Pakistan , Bollywood & World Entertainment
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Salaam!

In my entire life I’ve not seen more than 5 Pakistani movies, kitnee sharm ki baat hei na? we are fast at criticizing our actors/actresses and the quality of our movies but what have we done to help improve our film industry? If every Pakistani watched Lollywood movies instead of Bollywood it would bring money in to our film industry (and Economy) and the quality of our films would become top notch in no time, kiya hum apnay mulk kay liyay itna nahi kar saktay? Can’t we drop Indian movies for Pakistani movies, I know our actresses look worse than a dogs butt etc. but our film industry is only going to improve if we start watching Pakistani movies, by watching Indian movies we’re not only helping India’s film industry we’re helping there Economy instead of our own. Bollwood is also helping Indias tourism industry making it look glamorous on screen. We’re brainwashed into thinking Hindustani culture is our culture which is not true, we’re different, humaara deen dharam aik nahi hei, our music, our foods, rituals etc. are all different, instead of familiarizing our younger generation to Pakistani culture we’re brainwashing them into accepting Indian culture as there’s. Our culture is superior to Indian culture, The Quaid won freedom and an independent homeland for us because of all these differences Once Late Rajiv Gandhi’s wife had mentioned that, “we do not have to win Pakistan, our culture, through our movies, has already won it”.

kab tak hum “Gadar, Mission Kashmir , Zubaida, Shaheed-e-Mohabbat… jesi anti-Pakistan/Islam movies dhektay rahein gei??? Kab tak??? All the dirt they through on Pakistan just makes me sick…

ok I know they probably wouldn’t be one person who agrees with me but I just had to get my frustration out…

Allah hafiz.

~Shehzaada

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Shehzada,

not watching Lollywood doesn't necessarily force you to watch bollywood instead.

However, I have nothing against watching bollywood.. just make sure you don't spend a lot of money on them. They churn out their share of trash, but unless lollywood improves on it's post production and presentation.. i really don't think patriotism will make me sit through a three hour headache.

This Space For Rent

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You are out of tune, with Pakistanis…

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True, most Pakistani folks who frequent this board may not be ‘sophisticated’ enuf

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to appreciate the gyrations of Saima or Reema, but trust me, a large number of Pakistanis do go out and dish out the requisite hard-earned 23 rupees to watch the latest and the bestest Lollywood has to offer.

It doesn’t always take a lot of money to produce a good movie. So, I don’t just blame lack of audience support to crappy movies produced in Pakistani film studios. I think, the newer breed of film-makers, for the most part, lack creativity, are afraid of educating their audience, and hence keep on producing childish immitations of loud dialogue, clumsy fights, vulgar dance sequences and poor set-design.

I have seen a lot of Pakistani movies back in my early days of professional life. Our whole group will see the latest of Hollywood or Lollywood once a week. Sorry to say, but even the most dramatic emotional scenes are picturized in such a comic way that we were left laughing or smiling. So yes, I did my fair share of supporting the film studios in Lahore.

Blaming Indian movies is all fine and good, but remember, people have a choice. You cannot force-feed them to watch movies they don’t like. If they have the opportunity to watch a better movie they will. Too bad, that movie is depicting an undesirable culture. The blame lies squarely on our own film industry.

Our film industry complains of lack of funds. They blame censorship. As if allowing even more vulgarity will somehow bring up the quality. We have multi-million film stars, who probably are good actors too. Only they are forced to act in a loud, un-realistic manner, because seemingly our audience likes that. Typical chicken-and-egg argument.

Compared to that the Iranian films are very nice. Fully covered heroines and an educated story-line. Sedate, plot-driven movies with a message. Nice acting and excellent direction. I am sure those movies don’t cost a fortune. You just need an intelligent, educated film-production crew to come up with a good movie.

Till then, bollywood will keep renting its fare in all video stores in all corners of Pakistan. Bravo!

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Once Late Rajiv Gandhi’s wife had mentioned that, “we do not have to win Pakistan, our culture, through our movies, has already won it”.<<

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kab tak hum “Gadar, Mission Kashmir , Zubaida, Shaheed-e-Mohabbat… jesi anti-Pakistan/Islam movies dhektay rahein gei??? Kab tak??? All the dirt they through on Pakistan just makes me sick…<<

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Shezaada saab, I am an Indian and I am willing to contribute to whatever efforts you propose to wipe out BOllywood movies from the face of this planet.
Now, where do we start such an effort?
Pakistan ?

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Indian films were once very popular in Iran too. Nowdays the rich Iranian watch Western films while conservative lower and middle class Iranians watch Iranian and Indian film.

The Indian cinema industry was the biggest in its field in the region and Indians were quite adept in producing of commercial films which were tailored to Oriental taste. Most Indian films were soap operas, that drew tears from spectators and were filled with music and dance. The secret of their success was in awakening the naive sentiments of the eastern illiterate masses. The Indian films were a bad example for Iranians and somehow prevented Iranian filmmakers to become sagacious and realistic in their productions.

At the beginning of the '60s, people flocked to Indian musicals which had beaten Iranian films (Sangam had beaten all previous Indian and Iranians films) in terms of popularity. But with the Iranian movie `Qaroun's Treasure' and with the great advances made by local films, in the '70s, Indian films retreated to second or third grade cinemas and the eastern film exhibitors gave greater attention to Iranian productions. Turkish movies were seldom shown; however, from 1960 onward, Turkish and Iranian artists produced joint pictures in Iran and Turkey. Moreover, a few Turkish films made in Azerbaijan or the other Muslim republics of the ex-Soviet Union appeared on the screens.

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Walter Armbrust

Peripheral Visions:
The Ubiquitous Non-Presence of India in Egyptian Popular Culture

Contemporary Egyptian attitudes toward Indian cinema are a product of amnesia. Most Egyptian filmmakers and intellectuals despise Indian films. Audiences can be more ambivalent about the films, but share a widespread assumption that Indian cinema is a lower-class habit. This was not always the case. India has been effaced from contemporary social memory because Egyptian cinema is considered a national film tradition either opposed to, or dominated by, metropolitan industries and culture. Such a view emphasizes the "vertical" relations between a metropolitan center and a colonized periphery. My paper examines Egyptian cinema through "horizontal" imagery contained in representations of non-European foreigners in films and fan magazines from the 1930s to the 1950s.

In the 1930s, when the Egyptian film industry began, India was portrayed as a model to be emulated. The goal of a discourse on India was to promote an ideal of exchange between colonized societies outside the bounds of colonial economic and cultural development. By the 1950s India was a palpable presence in Egypt, but ironically, not a welcome one at a time when the Egyptian cinema struggled to maintain a share of its own market in the face of Hollywood competition. Films and fan magazines reflect this change by recasting foreignness as a function of difference rather than in terms of commonalties and moral equivalence, as had sometimes been the case in the 1930s. The discrete national film tradition now taken for granted was formerly, in some contexts, compatible with a transnational world of cultural kinship.

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Pakistani films just don't make much sense or appeal to Pakistanis brought up on Hollywood. Indian films are better produced but in general, are extremely naff. a few honourable exceptions in both cases.

if anybody from the film industry needs some pointers in how the films in Lollywood can be improved i'd be happy to give them a few pointers if they want to contact me, or alternatively, i can give some ideas here.

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Thank goodness Shezadaa - someone finally holds the same opinion as me! However, i do agree with one comment here: that you don't need a lot of money to make a good movie. You need a good script and a serious team.

Mr. Xtreme - please share with us your suggestions. I wish to go into film-making myself so I can use all the input I can get.

I don't think our actresses look like dogs (i'm talking about the ones the nation has accepted as heroines, not unknown names). These actresses look terrible on-screen cuz of the horrible make-up and lighting effects.

Money is a factor though. Have you seen our films? The same 1970's technology is being used. They really look terrible. Take Inteha for example, good story line - bad production. It wasn't sameena Peer's fault. It was the antiquated equipment!

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PyariGudia,
Money is one thing. But I think one more factor is the relatively open environment India has.
By and large, Indian Filmmakers can pretty much film what they want, though they are not free to the extent Hollywood film makers are.
After all, even Middle-Estern countries watch Bollywood movies and don't have much of an Industry of their own. (Iran seems to be an exception, but then Iran 'Opened Up' a little bit recently didn't it?)And they are far richer than India.
What do you think about that?
If Pakistani society is more open and permissive would Pak films be better?

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I don't agree at all. If by open-ness you mean more vulgarity than absolutely not.

What our films need is more realistic treatment to themes and story-lines. Dedication to make 'good' movies.

Right now, our film producers just want to earn their money back. They try to cater to the blue collar crowd (yea, and thats the crowd which actually dishes out the 23 rupees to see the movie). Our film producers think that the movie-goer comes to see gyrations of an over-weight heroine and the gandasa of a villain and the roar of a hero. They don't want to take the risk of making a realistic, intelligent movie in the fear that they may incur a financial loss.

We lack, to a certain degree, creativity. If one movie becomes superhit, 10s of others are made just copying that formula. The producers are in the business of making money, and no one can grudge that. However, many film producers are there just for the heck of it. Most film stars/heroines in Pakistan come from a certain back-ground. Rich folks who like to mix with that crowd brandish themselves as film producers. With no clue about film-making, they end up ruining the image even furher.

There are true creative persons there. Syed Noor, Shahzad Gul and Peerzadas, to name a few. Their hands are also tied up. The banks do not treat films as an industry and hence financing is not available. With lack of financing, the technology lags behind. The cameras are still hung from a rope to picturize a particularly tricky action sequence.

A major over-haul is required. Taking the cue from the TV dramas, we can show that peple want to see reality based, intelligent stories and good film-making. Cut down the loud-ness, and be more professional.

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Andhra - define "openess".

Creativity is the key factor. However, all the problems you've defined, pristine (all true to the core) can all be traced back to a root. Lack of education. Which the whole country and its institutions are lacking these days. I don't know if you've noticed, but the films that make the box office tend to be the ones made by the more educated crowd. Here's what I've always thought could do the trick. Go to the universities of the country and the "art" institutions and pull out new talent from there. College guys and girls usually have the freshest ideas and I think that if educated producers entered the field and took their actors/actresses/writers/music directors/singers from there - a hit might come thru. Any thoughts?

By the way, Shehzad gul has plans to build a film-school for the country. What are your thoughts on it? Could that be the panacea of the industry's problems?

All they need to do is to start making better films in terms of quality of script and acting. (Which they're beginning to go into that direction) After that, people will be flooding in to watch the films. Once that occurs, the industry will be pumped with enough money to start expanding its technological capacity and perhaps then our movies may be at the same level as India's.

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Well, 'openness' is producers making films without worrying too much about Politics and Religion for starters.

Anyway I am surprised there are no Pakistani 'schools' for acting.
They serve their purpose. Pune has a famous one. I think Shatrugan Sinha was an Alumni.

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hehe. Producers there aren't worried about "openess" then. They're worried about recovering their investments. They're afraid to make an educated movie about a REALl issue becuz they think no1 will watch it and they'll thus lose money. So they keep going with their security blanket: vulgarity.

Sameena Peerzada's movie INteha , for example, was about marital relations and the right of the wife to decide when to have sex or not. (of many other themes in the movie). Its called marital rape i think. Let me tell you. Even the so -called "educated" public of the country were apalled that she could put forth such a theme. They thought it indecent. Yet the public is okay with watching nearly naked woman dance on the screen. Its pure hypocrisy, Andhra. Part of the problem is within our own society.

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Yup. Both societies are staritlaced.
Tht's why such topics are taboo.

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True - the standard of films coming out of Lahore were pretty crappy for most of the 80's mainly due to zia-ul-haq cutting of the film industry. Since 89 though, almost all censorship curbs were lifted and as a result - Lahore went to the other extreme and started producing pathetic movies with half naked fat actresses prancing around, especially in the punjabi movies.

However, since the mid 90's there has been yet another new trend in Lahore that has seen former stars such as Sameena Pirzada for example, move into directing and as a result Inteha was considered by many to be the first real movie Lahore has produced since the 70's.

Pakistanis were right to distance themselves from the crap coming out of Lollywood in the 80's - but now there are more and more young people tuning into Pakistani movies - mainly due to the influx of popular and beautiful models such as Meera, Zara Sheikh, Amna Haq etc as well as the introduction of quality directors like Syed Noor and Sameena Pirzada.

Slowly but surely Pakistani movies are capturing an increasing audience but they have to stay the course and continue to improve in order to compete with others and to increase their audience not just in Pakistan but in places like the UK and North America as well.

It'll take time but they're on the right track.

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i don't think it's necessary to have realistic movies to succeed in the industry. The problem isn't big bucks either. It's simply bad casting, bad direction and bad scriptwriting.

Just look at the size of the backsides on some of those 'heroines' for a start. and the clothes they wear, their make-up and the disgusting and amateurish choreography of the dance scenes. none of this has anything to do with funds, it's just a case of people doing the job who quite clearly don't have a clue.

For all their faults, Indian film makers at least know what a decent looking leading actor and actress should look like. And in the film industry, in 90% of the films worldwide, looks are absolutely a major consideration. This is about entertainment and people like to look at pretty faces although without any charisma, it's not much use either.

PyariC,

good call on the arts students. although it would have to be made clear that too much artistic thought won't work on the big screen. it's ok for dramas and the like. Interestingly i have seen better production on some of the recent pop videos coming out of Pakistan - although that's not saying much - than from our film industry.

I think it's just a matter of head-hunting some talented directors and enticing them to work in Lollywood. I don't doubt there are plenty of creative people who would like to work in the industry if it were made a bit more attractive.

Neither should we restrict ourselves to making overly-decent movies which are heavily censored. If people want to see women dancing around in skimpy clothes, or toss-pots like Salman Khan taking his shirt off, we should provide them with what they want. If we don't it's easy enough to buy/rent an Indian film and what good is that to us?

Major factors remain however the ability to cast a film well, and then direct it to a high standard. That talent is priceless and no amount of money can replace it. Think of the great directors like Spielberg and Hitchcock and how they create moods and styles in a film and it's clear just how crucial it is in making a film.

BTW PyariC, are you planning on making films in the US? competition' pretty tough out there, maybe you should consider going to Pakistan where the standard is pretty low and new ideas would be appreciated. if i lived in Pakistan i think i would definitely have made it a career move over there.

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xtreme, I did have the idea of moving to Lollywood (as you can already see from my over-done enthusiasm on these posts).

I totally agree with you on the factor's you've pointed out. I did think that money was one of the most important factors and now that I'm thinking about it , when films like Jeeva and Sargam (the Adnan Sami Khan and Zeba Bakhtiar film) and Inteha, etc. made it big, they made it big because they had a decent (not great) script, direction, and performances. The production quality on the other hand of those films was pretty flimsy.

I have to tell you guys, if you didn't know already, that the first digital film is set to release soon in Pakistan. Javed Sheikh has made the film - its been shot in Spain (although I wished he had chosen Pakistan) - and its got all the new actors and actresses - the pretty and cute ones, not old Saimas and Anjumans!

Plus, Chalo Ishq Larain by Shehzad Gul should be good. Its a teenagerish flick. Ali Haider will be in it and I believe he's been composing the music. THe music has done well on its release and maybe the movie will too

Shaan was supposed to release Musa at Eid. I haven't read any articles on it yet, since Eid was on Monday - maybe the Dawn and Jang will have some news about how that film did. Its focus is on religion (hence the title!) and the social condition of our country. So that should be something different as well.

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PyariC, If you are intent on a filmi director career, I would say choose your path first.
1.Make 'popular' films. Will do well to land in Bollywood and learn from directors like ManiRatnam and RamoGopal Verma. Or directors like Subhash Ghai though I don't think much of him.
Better off working with people like Aamir Khan or Kamal Hassan or Sharukh. Actors with a good understanding of the media.
2.Make 'Artsy' films. Satyajit Ray type directos are still around.
3.Make 'Female Oriented' movies. Lots of artsy crowd like Shabana Azmni and others.
You could try Preethvi Theatres and others like that.
4.Alternately, jump into Hollywood. Desi directors have done quite well there.
For any of the above though, I think you need a significant apprenticeship. Direction is different from Acting. You need to learn a lot.

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I'd probably go to Bollywood for the learning experience - but i'd ultimately go to Lollywood to make movies.

I'll be taking my first few classes on film next semester. I go to Univ OF Miami - and our film school is pretty good here - so i should get decent training.

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What kind of films you want to make?