Religious festivals or national holidays all over the world hold a great significance when it comes to giving a good opening to a film. In Pakistan however, these festivals mean something more. Not releasing their films in rest of the whole year, filmmakers, during these days expect government to give them a competition free environment by banning foreign films; (specially the ones from across the border as they are considered to be the direct competition due to language similarities), so that the local ones can have a clear field to play and get a good start towards making it big at box office.
This is why every year we hear the cry of banning Indian films from industry representatives, which by-the-way gets louder and louder as Eid dates start nearing up, so if you see the same thing happening this year; don’t be much surprised.
For filmmakers however, scenario could be very different and tough this time around. Let’s not get into the argument of quality of films or Urdu-Punjabi or urban-rural factors. It’s actually about the fate of upcoming Eid releases with respect to the competition they could face from their imported competitors.
But before getting into more details of the central point here, how about having a little positive treat? If you are really a big movie buff or even planning to visit cinema with your friends or family; the good news is that there are at least four confirmed Pakistani films and the same number of foreign films making it to cinemas this Eid, and thus it can fairly be expected that it would be enough entertainment for people of all tastes.
On the other hand, though it’s a great regret to mention here, but an another reality is that out of these four, none of the films is in national language. The two big announced releases on this Eid would be director Shehzad Rafique’s Ishq Khuda and Syed Noor’s Shareeka. The other two; the comparatively smaller ones are, Sherdil by Iqbal Kashmiri and Gujjar da Kharak by Arshad Khan, again both in Punjabi language.
Moreover, it is expected that Arbaaz Khan’s recently directed Pashto film Qasam is also in the line to get cinema bookings to be released on this Eid-ul-Fitr.
Now let’s come to the more scary part; the foreign films, at least five confirmed foreign films will be screened this year on Eid in local cinemas. These include, Salman Khan starer Ek tha Tiger, the new Batman film–The Dark Knight Rises, children animated film and second installment of Sammy series–Sammy 2: Escape from Paradise, Geo films backed Total Recall, and Jona Hill, Ben Stiller starer Sci-fi comedy The Watch. Not only that, according Atrium Cinema’s ‘Releasing this Eid’ list, The Bourne Legacy of famous American spy ‘Bourne series’ is also getting a space in cinema this Eid.
Despite the fact that government might ban the screening of foreign films on three Eid days, it is quite expected that these foreign films will give the local ones a real run for money once the Eid days are over.
Let’s remember again what happened last year, if comparison is to be done, the last year’s local films on Eid were way stronger than the ones releasing this time. They included Reema Khan’s high budgeted, high quality and well marketed Urdu film Love Mein Ghum, Syed Faisal Bukhari’s action-thriller Bhai Log and Syed Noor’s Punjabi film Jugni. Three of them combined, couldn’t face the competition given by Salman Khan starer Body Guard, which really put a great cut in the box office numbers of these films.
Comparative to what our filmmakers have for us this year, the above mentioned local films did not only enjoy a countrywide appeal– (two of them being in national language)– but were also marketed heavily in almost all mediums. They might have performed well, had they been released in a different time frame.
Secondly, it is now clear that Shaan just has a cameo role in Ishq Khuda, while core of the film actually revolves around the Love triangle between Ahsan Khan, Meera and Emirati actor Wiam Dahmani. This actually means that fans may get second thoughts while deciding whether to watch the film or not. For such people, Shaan and Saima starer Shareeka might not be a bad choice.
Ek Tha Tiger is already expected to become India’s highest grossing film, whereas, The Dark Knight Rises has already created enough headlines to get people in hordes once the film is released. God knows how our films are going to survive or at least recover their cost in such a hostile environment. Even if the government stops foreign films to be screened on this Eid, our films are already pretty much facing towards a pitfall.
The best scenario for Shehzad Rafique or Syed Noor or any director as the matter of fact in such a case could be to back out from the ‘Eid Release’ idea and release the film with a delay of say 15 or 20 days, so that these mammoth looking foreign films are at their lowest strength when the local ones could give them a final kick and enjoy a much favourable time in cinemas. In the meanwhile, heavy marketing should be done through all possible means, so that when the time comes, people are not confused over the choice of these films over others.
Decisions are to be taken by those who have all the power regarding their film, but these are some of the facts that cannot just be ignored. If still some director takes the chance of releasing his film in such a scenario, we would just term it as a brave call.
Just to leave you with a last thought, here is an interesting fact. Shehzad Rafique’s Ishq Khuda and Salman Khan starer Ek Tha Tiger both have the same distribution partner in Pakistan–IMGC Global Entertainment– so if both the films come face to face in cinemas this Eid, it would be really interesting to see how they perform against each other.
Update: According to the latest post by Ishq Khuda’s official Facebook page, the movie is not releasing on Eid-ul-Fitr this year anymore and will release on Eid-ul-Adha instead.
“Reema Khan’s high budgeted, high quality and well marketed Urdu film Love Mein Ghum”
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Classic! This just sums it up. You think reema’s film was high quality? hahahahahahaahahahahahaahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaa
Good going man really. You know a lot about films.
Well to be honest, it was way better than what we usually see of our films. Was made with a budget of around 5 to 6 crores which is considered to be a budget of good quality films in Pakistan. Might not be as good as what we usually see in International films but compared to what is coming on this Eid, it indeed was a high quality film. One might have objection on it’s story or acting or maybe songs but quality wise it was not less than what Indian films of early 2000 used to be.
bogus article.. what the writer has failed to realize is that Punjabi and urdu films have a different market, different fan following.. Body guard or any other indian film mostly affects market of Urdu films.. that is why ur not seeing any urdu film being made.. on the other hand, Punjabi films will be competing among each other
Wahab your opinion is partially right. The direct competitors of Indian films in Pakistan are the Urdu language movies, but don’t be illusioned that they don’t affect the business of Punjabi films. The greatest penetration of Indian films in Pakistan is currently in rural areas and that’s where the Punjabi film market lies. You see, the biggest point where Indian films hit these provincial films is by not giving them a place in the cinema. Leave aside the multiplexes, all you are left with to screen your film are those conventional, one screen theatres, and even they don’t allow movies if they think that an Indian film can have a better chance of doing business. That’s actually the reason why we see our filmmakers lashing out at Indian films, even those who usually make Punjabi films only. And I think, most probably that’s the reason why Shehzad Rafique pulled Ishq Khuda out of that Eid slot.
I remember once I was on a road trip in Punjab and this is almost four years back, we pulled our car at Gujranwala I believe and there was this small restaurant, people sitting there were mostly those who used to work in nearby farms and mechanic shop at the petrol pump, and there were these guys watching some Akshay Kumar film while having their morning meal. I mean that’s the level of Indian film penetration in these areas of our country. Indian films have actually become a big threat to all sort of films in Pakistan.