forgot to mention Omer Khan (Shehryar Khan's son) the maker of Zibahkhana. haven't seen Zibahkhana... but he sounds like a very interesting guy with a new vision for Pakistani films. hope he does more work.
then, of course, there are people like Sarmad Khoosat and Adeel Hashmi... never been a fan of their TV work but at least they'd be new... maybe they can pull something off...
Samb, some valid points but overall a very cynical take on the state of affairs and future prospects. Commercial cinema -- popular cinema, that is economically feasible is what we're discussing here. Film makers are not philanthropists and neither should one expect them to be, for all of them have pure economic interests at the back of their minds. I would if I were to make a film. You've mentioned Ramchand Pakistani, which bombed, and Zibahkhana, which had a limited run at one multiplex in Rawalpindi. Khamosh Pani -- heck even the gora audiences didn't take too well too it, check out it's gross figures in three or four digits on IMDB.
The fact is that even Khuda Ke Liye, probably the most serious and path breaking film ever from our part of the world, was a musical. I dont know, but perhaps there is a cultural aspect to having music in our films. You take that out and folks would call your film a television play, and some of those are actually half decent films given their stories, plots and acting. And you can watch a play for free on tellie, whereas when you're paying quid to get into a theater, there has to be some novelty to it. Another possible reason could be that music compensates for shoddy plots and half baked storylines. Anyway whether you have music or you don't, strong storylines and scripts are the order of the day, with good visuals and acting. Shaan apparently is going in that direction with that film he's scripted that's based on some Paulo Coelho novel. It's a way forward which perhaps others can learn from.
I do agree with you wholeheartedly that using the bollywood model is simply not going to work. KKL attempted to create some new Pakistani-cinema specific genre. BUT post KKL, even bollywood has come up with so many KKL-spin offs that the line between what could be our type of cinema and bollywood is again very blurred.