Films in Pakistan

FilmS In Pakistan

Pre-partition to 1964

In 1947 there was a partition of the Indian Subcontinent into two parts, this also divided the media in the two countries. It is easy to understand that the media audiences in both these parts were quite similar, even though they were superficially geared to serve two different political ideals by the end of it. The perspective of our focus is the Film Media and the film industry was rather sophisticated in pre-partition India. There was no television, the films had substance and the creative flow of the people had a natural high. The Film industry in countries has usually been concentrated in the large cities of a country. The large cities – Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, Lucknow, Bangalore, Pune, Lahore; became a part of India however and this meant that the Film making capacity in Pakistan was rather constricted.

After partition a number of quality actors and film making staff migrated to the Pakistan in hope of a flourishing film industry. For the first few decades’ production houses kept investing because of the encouraging response from the public, there was ample return on investment[1]. Partition spillovers from the Indian film industry included technical experts, artists, writers, directors and audiences. Some famous names are Khwaja Khursheed Anwar, a highly qualified individual involved in the film-making. Riaz Shahi and Hasan Tariq were storyline people and directors. So we could see that the trend was that the Subcontinental film industry’s successes, trends and functional effects colored Film Media in Pakistan. [2]

The films made in Pakistan in that era were rather sophisticated. The intellectual and creative elite had focusd itself to this genre of media. The First color film Sangam was produced in East Pakistan in 1964 ( a time when cinema had become popular around the world) and Bahana (the first wide screen film) and Mala (1965, the first wide screen color film).

                It is important to notice here that the production side of things was mostly propelled by East Pakistan which was not in mainland Pakistan. These people were few, influential and effective in driving the film industry in Pakistan. But where was the next generation going to come from?

 There were two major themes of films being produced; Hindustani and Muslim socials (such as Kartar Sing by Saifuddin Saif based on a short story by Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi did well in Pakistan and in Delhi as well. There was a growing propensity to ride in the coattails of the Indian Film Industry; This translated into plagiarism which meant that Pakistani movies were often second or third hand stuff, like Lakhte jigger and Hamida.[3]

An analysis of pre partition film making will give you an insight into the sophistication of the audiences and creators of this era. The Films had art value, cultural value; attracted audiences and the Government did not play the hindering role which is in stark contrast to the role it plays today here and around the globe. It is true that culture was not a priority of the respective governments as such or at least with respect to the film media.

Another important aspect of this era is that the audience division was not very pronounced. Everybody who watched films could claim and effectively function as belonging to the same social and ideological sections of society. Naturally one thinks about the censorship and clustering of the market segments at this point which characterizes modern film and other media.

How did audiences take part? The Cinemas were thriving. The major sources of revenue for films were cinemas. The higher the cinema viewership, the higher the profits. Cinemas were a major source of entertainment for people post partition but due to a number of socioeconomic reasons this trend changed overtime. In light of the recent 3D movement, a reflective example is that the first 3d movie was screened in 1954 at the Karachi paradise cinema. Going to cinemas was an important part of the lives of the people in the cities, public screenings were common. The ban of Indian film imports also marked of the demise of cinemas in Pakistan.

1964 – The Advent of Television, Fundamentalism and Goodbye Film.

1964 marks an important year, it was the year Television was introduced in Pakistan. An estimated statistic is that a 100 out of a 1000 active audiences switched to television. The division thus created had a big part in segmenting the audiences into those who could afford television, the upper classes (elite?) and those who could not and still consumed media as before. Production potential shifted to television, it was en vogue. The intellectual elite shifted to Television; from literature, Art, Ashfaq and kamal (sic), things which were not TV material were forced onto the TV in a classical display of mindless digression from quality media.

A number of film production houses were forced to close because of the rising cost of production and lack of profit. This was a combined result of the worsening economic conditions of the country and the gradual lack of interest from the masses in films and cinemas. The production houses were barely breaking even, thus production companies had to shift their focus from films to television entertainment. The lack of support from the government in providing a development platform or any subsidies was a major blow to the industry as well. Also the dearth of investment to increase human capital and skills and techniques led to retarded growth or no growth at all. 

                According to Mr. Raziuddin of Evernew productions the average ratings for PTV went up to 40 on the scale, which means that 40% of the people in Pakistan with television access used to view it and considering the reach of PTV it isn’t hard to comprehend. In times of today, a rating above 1 is considered substantial keeping in mind the variety available to the consumers.

The film industry in Pakistan has never held an important position in Pakistani Media. On the technical side, the technical evolution in other parts of the world was lost in Pakistan. The technical side is very underdeveloped in Pakistan, which means that we are using cameras which were rendered obsolete in Hollywood 60 years ago and lab work if it is to be of any quality has to be outsourced to places like Hong Kong, London, America, and India. The track used for cameras are still not used.

It can be said that the film industry in Pakistan never took off. In the 60’s and 70’s Pakistan was a major consumer of the Indian film industry. Cinemas were razed and replaced with apartment buildings and malls and offices. The war with India broke off an important lifeline of the Pakistani film media and indeed crumpled it with the widespread consumption of black market Indian Films[4].

With the world economies becoming predominantly capitalist, the era of consumerism began spreading its roots in the Pakistani film industry as well. With the masses demanding more and more Bollywood and Hollywood oriented films, there was a paradigm shift in film making as well. Products were geared towards mimicking foreign movies. But this hybrid creation led to the evolution of ‘pseudo Indian’ and ‘pseudo American’ films which were impotent in terms of creativity and innovation and failed to generate any sort of substantial viewership. This degeneration of films is amply demonstrated in the names of such films:

§  Daag

§  International goreelay

§  Society girl

§  Super girl

And if it weren’t for low quality ambitious films, the local films that were being made were very ethnically centered, catering to the people of particular linguistic roots. Thus in a country the size of Pakistan, this took away the last hope of successful commercial film making in Pakistan. [5]Statistics point towards this lack of uniformity in our industry, in 2009 a total of 8 Urdu movies, 7 Punjabi and 9 Pashtu movies were made.

The Zia ul Haq era is the era where the shit hit the fan. The constriction and destruction of media, free media, our at least according to our market ideals was slaughtered. The media was geared only to feed propaganda to the people, Javed jabbar defines propaganda as any information which is deliberately tailored and disseminate to achieve a desired end[6]. Censorship of that one long decade caused a destruction which has till date not been reconstructed and set the technical and intellectual (brain trade) quite far behind in Pakistan. Censorship created fear more than anything else, certain foreign affairs were off limits but the fascist nature and affect has lefts its mark on Pakistan.

So when Azhar Abbas, who set up PTV in Pakistan, comes back aboard in 1993-94 says “Things have gone beyond repair”, and resigned six months later.

2011 – The Current State of Film in Pakistan

Recent times have brought no promise of revival for the Pakistani film industry, things are still gloomy but that doesn’t mean that there is no room for improvement. At present though our biggest issue is the inflow of foreign films and people preferring them over local films. The reasons are evident, these Hollywood and Bollywood films are better finished products than a majority of our own films. The frustrated masses of our country our now again looking back to film and cinema for providing a source of entertainment in the turbulent times of today when there isn’t much to look forward to apart from death and despair. And in these times these foreign films provide the right kind of content that is preferred by our own people. What needs to be understood is that it’s not the label of Pakistani films and our meager expectations from them that stop the people from watching them because yet again some of our films outclass others in all fields. The success of khuda ke liye tells us that Pakistani cinema goers are interested in good movies. There’s no particular characteristic of those movies that would make this interest tainted with say, Hollywood or Bollywood bias. Generally, all we look forward to at the end of the day is a good movie, be it lolly, bolly or holly.

This is further strengthened by the fact that khuda ke liye was a success despite the very conventional Lollywood gunman Shaan, who’s Punjabi and Urdu movies are barely the discerning eye’s cup of tea.

Mehreen Jabbar[7], director of Ramchand Pakistani, believes that at times it’s hard to compete with the two most powerful film industries in the world. We can still make a name for ourselves by being innovative and learning from the strategies they implement. This is pretty evident in Jabbar’s works for the silver screen as well as TV broadcast, where her movies like Ramchand and TV serials like Daam and Vasl have been immensely innovative, compared to conventional Pakistani TV serials.

But the fact remains that production houses now see more potential in buying licenses for showcasing Indian and English films rather than local films. This is because they are aware of the response from the public to these foreign films and the resulting profit making space.

Recently there has also been an emergence of Independent films made by young film makers in Pakistan. This is a promising prospect because usually these projects are true works of art by these individuals who aren’t able to get much support in our red tape-ridden industry. Some of these projects include: From Omar Ali Khan’s ‘Zibahkhana’ Hammad Khan’s ‘Slackistan’, Shahbaz Shigri’s short ‘Sole search’ Afia Nathanial’s ‘Neither the Veil nor the Four Walls’ – all indie ventures.

There are two things that provide us a positive prospect for the industry:

GROWTH OF THE DRAMA INDUSTRY:

The drama industry in Pakistan provides a different picture, compared to the film industry. It is now seeing a period of growth and boom with quality products being produced frequently. Though the drama industry also saw a period of decline in recent times but it has found its way out of the slump with ratings going higher and higher. The emergence of quality actors, directors, cameramen and other technical staff is a promising sign for the film industry if these minds are used in making films as well. The most notable thing is that producers are willing to invest ample amounts in drama production because they view it as an interesting prospect of investment. And after the PEMRA regulations were introduced, and with the growing trend of private channels there is now more room for drama and film production. And in today’s day and age we have one advantage that we previously didn’t; we now have the tools of marketing and advertisements. This offers two major advantages, firstly your films receive extra coverage and a starting platform and secondly, it attracts a number of investors.

REEMERGENCE OF CINEMAS

 Recent surges in cinema viewership are perhaps something to look forward to for people eying the revival of the film industry. Viewership has increased primarily due to the showcasing of foreign films and better cinemas but the public has started going back to cinemas. Lack of cinema culture was a major hurdle, but trends are getter better now.

As of the last decade or so the lower class dominated cinema viewership for the most part, thus the films were catered to their needs. The middle class or the elite didn’t go to those cinemas. The educated class barely watched these films and didn’t even get involved in production or direction.

 Though the positive prospect for the filming industry is the fact that film viewership is becoming very diverse and the recent increase in art film productions is a testimony to this change.

Old time cinemas like Capri, Nishat and Prince who have stood the test of time are now on a much better stage. Recent increase in revenues has led to improvement and refurbishment. That automatically paves way for film making and production. Investors are trying to enmesh the cinema culture with our daily activities by creating cinemas in malls. Better analysis of marketing figures and statistics has led to better confidence of investors and better understanding of the film industry. Even though the number of cinemas throughout the country has reduced from over [8]700 in 1977 to 250 in 2006, there is promise of increasing figures.

Analyses and Recommendations

Quality is an issue, production, post production, intellectual material, education, opportunities, restricted platforms and a relatively pre-modern consumer base and creators of media. Comparison: In Hollywood you have diversity, Titanic 200 million dollars and Indie films such as Blair witch project which cost 12 thousand.

The government only taxed the entertainment industry and there were no supply side policies, even though a few quality movies were produced such as baji, muthi bhar chawal, zehre ishq, lakhon mein aik. But then again TV took away a lot of the talent, especially the educated younger generation; this coincided with the mass availability of pirated Indian and western movies.

Government in India funds cultural movies every year, also ensuring that at least one Indian film is selected for the Oscars. The South Indian Movie industry (which is based in Marathi) is a fueled by a gigantic market and indeed just the South Indian movie industry represents a mammoth in itself. The comparison carries significance because it functions in the same region but is technically efficient

The cinemas are few, serving less than 3 cities. They are expensive, there should be more to cater to other segments of the population (clustering).  The issue of intellectual property rights, piracy, investment incentives (fiscal and supply restructuring). “Ramchand Pakistani” won a lot of international awards – one being at the Fribourg festival in Switzerland – this should be an incentive for investors. The insecurity cinema goers face in cities – crimes, harassment et al need to be addressed.

It is highly debatable whether or not Pakistan has the talent to fuel its film media (and cinema), it can be said that the people here have a strong audience value; they may not be sophisticated audiences or large enough like elsewhere but they can be tapped in more effectively.

“There is no talent in Pakistan” is something which is not so popularly accepted by public opinion, we think that there is talent only that it is untapped, but we have to realize that maybe there is no talent and work towards creation and harnessing of baby talents rather than being ignorantly idealistic.

                 The quality of people involved only deteriorated, with only a few exceptional people still producing material of high merit. And those who are creative and well trained aren’t paid much heed or don’t get the desired response from the industry to continue working here. Hammad Khan, the director of a film called ‘Slackistan’ is such an example. His film was banned in Pakistan because it couldn’t clear the censor board’s requirement. In his frustrated rebuttal to the censor board he stated that, “The censor board’s verdict is oppressive, arbitrary and steeped in denial about life outside their government offices. Maybe the establishment’s view is that young Pakistanis saying words like 'Taliban' and 'Lesbian' represent a more potent threat than the bullets and bombs that are, day by day, finding increasing legitimacy in the country.[9]” Apart from that there aren’t many institutions that can produce interested scholars with relevant training and education in filming. The few that do include the Indus Valley school of arts, Beaconhouse national university, Szabist, National College of Arts, Iqra University and the Karachi University.

At the end of the day keeping all our optimistic fantasies apart, it’s no secret that our Film industry is doomed. With the realization of this reality comes the step of concentrating our efforts on what we have a comparative advantage at, Drama production. Film making is no formality, it’s a vast medium which in order to be used successfully, needs the combination of a number of key factors mentioned earlier, of which we barely possess a few. So the idea of mainstream Lollywood remains utopian for now, specially keeping in mind the competition it faces from across the border and abroad. As a consolation though, there seems more hope for independent ventures in our industry. They are relatively creative, critically acclaimed, dense in terms of content and most importantly welcome among the literate circle of our society. In times when there is a major question mark on our country’s statehood, it’s not surprising to see our commercial film industry roam around with an even more justifiable question mark on its legitimacy, in terms of what it’s creating. Considering what it is creating, should it even be creating? Should the Pakistani Commercial film industry even strive to exist?

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[1] Ahmed, Riazuddin. COO of Evernew Productions. April 2011, taken from a personal interview.

[2] Peerzada, M Salman. April 2011, taken from a personal interview conducted by the author.

[3] Noorani, Asif. April 2011.“ A fossilized film Industry” Printed in the slogan April 2011.

[4] Shahid, S M. April 2011.  The Good Old Movie Days, printed in the Slogan.

[5] Pakistan Film E-magazine- http://mazhar.dk/film/history/01.html- History of Pakistani film making

[6] Jabbar Javed, April 2011.  Guest lectures on Media at IBA.

[7] Jabbar, Mehreen, ‘In-depth: Pakistan’s film industry and cinema culture’ Published in Daily Dawn 15th December,2010

[8] www.fipresci.org-the international federation of film critics, “A Short History of Pakistani Films By Aijaz Gul”

http://www.fipresci.org/world_cinema/south/south_english_asian_cinema_pakistan_history.htm

[9] “slackistan Banned in Pakistan”  Imtiaz, Saba.Printed in the Express Tribune on January 25 2011.