Re: Pakistani films to look forward to
So Ramchand has only been screened at Tribeca and is not up in Pakistani theatres yet?
Interestingly, various sites online are reporting Pyar Kabhi Na Karna (I don't quite know if I got the title right; I could be mixing it up with one of the many hundreds of bollywood movies with titles also containing "Pyar", "Kabhi", "Karna" or some mix of the above) is already released and in theatres in Pakistan. Yet when I look on the website of Cinepax, a cinema company in Pakistan, its still listed under "upcoming".
I feel that Pakistan is going to continue to be the 1-2 movies per year industry, if that. I was expecting much to change suddenly with the release of Khuda ke Liye, and even more activity to spark up when Indian movies began being released in Pakistan, yet I fear that Pakistanis are once again too complacent and find it easier enjoying entertainment produced outside their country than to bother jump starting a dying industry.
Furthermore, unprofessionalism is still the special of the week with these guys. Javed Sheikh keeps announcing vague dates, and then doesn't live up to releasing the movie. Is he afraid of the competition? Most likely. If you were a bollywood diehard, as most Pakistanis tend to be, would you want to see this Javed Sheikh flick or something/anything with Aishwarya?
Javed Sheikh is being completely unprofessional, and his attitude of putting off the release of his movie is just going to hurt him in the end. I believe he made some announcement recently of a date, and I hope for his sake, he sticks to it.
Sameena Peerzada, on a television forum on the state of the Pakistani film industry, claimed she's about to make another movie, but no other news has surfaced on the issue. Maybe it hasn't materialized out of her mind yet.
Saqib Malik's film, of which its been so long that I've forgotten the name of it, has appeared to have been shelved. Jami wishes to make a film as well, but no details on when, where, or how. After Khuda Ke Liye's success, Shohaib Mansoor wants to move onto his next movie, but no news on anything yet there either. Shohaib is losing muchos dineros on folks bootlegging his movie on the internet - you can watch it for free on youtube, and you would think he'd have the sense to contact youtube, and get those clips removed. You'd also think the DVD would be more available at this point outside Pakistan - available in most big metropolitan areas. People here, as usual, give me a quizzical look when I ask them about any Pakistani movie, including Khuda Ke Liye, despite its well-touted Indian release.
Is the Pakistani film industry coming out of its doldrums? Until someone comes along and has some economic genius on how to propel a dying industry out of the crater it made for itself with over a decade of unprofessional and absurd behavior, I am afraid that all we can hope for is at best 1 or 2 movies a year, and that too produced at great personal cost, as what we've seen happen with both Ramchand and Khuda Ke Liye.