With the ongoing screenings of Hollywood and Bollywood films, Pakistani cinemas are now set to have a flavour of Iranian films, according to a report in the Daily Express. Lollywood is planning to import films from Iran, originally in Persian. The movies will be first dubbed in Urdu before their screenings in theatres.
(Read: “‘Delhi Belly’ denied public exhibition license in Pakistan”)
Currently details are being finalised by the local industry’s bigwigs. However, unlike the screenings of Indian films, which are criticised by Lollywood artists, the possible arrival of Iranian films in Pakistani cinemas is being appreciated in the film industry.
Lollywood’s warm welcome also comes because of the joint venture behind such screenings. Film-makers are looking forward to Pak-Iran joint ventures through Iranian support in the form of advanced technology and better storylines. According to a Lollywood insider, the Iranian film industry is ready to support Lollywood, which could help revive the declining film industry.
The Iranian films are considered to be part of an up-and-coming film industry with many post-revolution films screened at various international film festivals like Cannes, Venice, London and San Sebastian film festival. Since 1997, a number of Iranian films have been nominated for an Academy Award.
Hamza Ali Abbasi, a Pakistani actor and the director of Mud House and the Golden Doll, believes that the Iranian film industry should be taken as an example for the revival of the local film industry. “Our film industry should be more like the Iranian film industry where they tell the story in a simple manner and that gets screened all over the world. Pakistan, too, has a lot of talent, but the younger lot just needs to come up with an idea and they need to be encouraged to make something, no matter how silly it is. They should still be able to make something,” Abbasi told The Express Tribune.
Published in The Express Tribune, July 27th, 2011.
Yay! Finally, something worth watching.
wow thats really good! i hope our artistes learn something from this!
These efforts will be fruitless, as the cinemas will start getting in loss because very less people will turn up to see Iranian movies. When there is a Shahrukh or Salman Khan’s movie, our TV channels, newspapers and many popular multinational brands (like Lux, Pepsi, Nestle etc) promote it like anything through advertisements, reviews, articles etc etc. When they will be reluctant to promote Iranian movies, they will not get enough publicity and hence a ‘houseful cinema showing an Iranian movie’ will remain a distant dream.
good joint venture between Iran and Pakistan. at last cinema of Pakistan will revive.
pakistani cinema is already alive….
its working pretty gud…
This is a great move…Irani cimena is top class.
these movies are about stoning and be-headings?
@pardesi:
Swat or FATA could make the right backdrop for your desired themes. What role would you like to play?. Try to discover Iran yourself instead of succumbing to propaganda. You should get out more.
will pakistanis learn persian to watch these movies?
Only a few middle class or elite will show up to watch these Iranian films, which have no dances or action scenes.
finally my wish comes true! looking forward after catching them on video n the channel: K2.
@GHQ
No. It will surely be dubbed in Urdu. Anyway looking forward to it.