Wait, wait, wait and wait a little more!

Their announcement dates aside; it’s been ages since you first watched their trailers or heard about their ‘camera closed’ status, and yet while the running year is towards its fall, there is no sign of them making it to our cinemas in near future, at least not till the first half of the succeeding year. We are obviously talking about the films that are carrying the ‘soon-to-be-released’ tag for quite a long time now, but anything on their release is no different from finding water in desert. Films like, Waar, The Dusk, Ishq Khuda and Saltanat, are all part of this category, where directors seem to be playing some sort of patience-testing game with Pakistani film fans.

Waar is an action-thriller while, The Dusk is a drama/social feature film. Saltanat is said to be an action/romance flick by Faisal Bukhari, and Ishq Khuda would touch the drama cum Sufi-ism-romance line–a story of love for opposite sex transforming into the love of Allah.

These movies are on constant delays because of some having incomplete shoots or post production, some facing technical and financial problems to give final touch to the movie, and some are taking the cover of unsuitable law and order situation in the country. But whatsoever the reasons are, this tiresome and never-ending wait is now getting the viewers disappointed.

Amaan Tareen; the PR and Media Manager of The Dusk when contacted and enquired about the issue, told Galaxy Lollywood that a sequence is to be re-shot in Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) of Pakistan, which obviously requires NOC from Pakistan Army and the government. Although he cited the NOC issue being the main reason behind the film’s continuous delay, he however, also mentioned that technical and financial issues are also a barrier as they are on their own as far as fulfilling the production requirements of the film are concerned—no sponsorships and no government support.

Similarly, when contacted with the media correspondents of Shehzad Rafique’s Ishq Khuda, they had their own cries and reasons justifying the film delay. Ishq Khuda was first supposed to release on Eid-ul-Fitr this year, got postponed till Eid-ul-Azha, and then postponed again as Eid days started nearing up. And now the media team has announced a new date of March 2013 for the film release.

Hasnat Afridi from the Marketing division of Ishq Khuda, told Galaxy Lollywood that they were very much planning to release the film on Eid-ul-Azha, but unluckily they couldn’t get the Indian visas on time for the post-production of the film, which by the way is not done even yet. Pakistan unluckily lags far behind in post-production facilities for films and thus, filmmakers either go India or Honk Kong for it, or get it done from any of the technically sound western film markets.

Afridi however, also passed a good news that the film has offers from foreign distributors in UK, USA, Australia, India and UAE for an international premiere and now they are preparing for a grand release for Ishq Khuda and are currently busy doing extensive marketing.

On a side note: Well, we didn’t see any of that extensive marketing yet, and an international premiere for a Punjabi film. Ok, we’ll see.

Saltanat; a romantic-action flick by Syed Faisal Bukhari, is said to be one of the most expensive and star-studded films of Lollywood—having a combo of big names from both Pakistani and Indian acting fraternity. First announced to be released in 2011 the film hasn’t yet made it to cinemas, despite the fact that a ‘world premiering party’ has already been long given in Dubai, which was attended by many of its cast members and important personalities from Pakistan and India, including former Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf.

A few reports however, suggest that the film’s post-production has started only this month and that it will take time before the film takes its final shape. Syed Faisal Bukhari’s previous release Bhai Log, a mixed genre of action-thrill, drama and romance, was also a very late release but did a fairly good business in cinemas. Now once again people are anxiously waiting for his next project.

Waar; obviously the most anticipated film currently, is also nowhere as far as its release dates are concerned. Produced by Mind Works Media and directed by Bilal Lashari, the film is said to have its rough cut ready but the consensus between local and International distributors is what currently required for filmmakers to finally announce a release date. Well, the consensus seems to be not happening soon.

When Galaxy Lollywood tried contacting Mind Works Media to get producer Dr. Hassan Waqar Rana’s take on the issue, both their office phone numbers were non-functional and no progress of the said movie could come into knowledge.

Keeping all the negatives aside, we just hope these black clouds on Pakistan film industry shed away soon and we get to see some of the quality work that is up on our way—reaching quite slow though, but it is going to give us one hell of an entertainment ride once it makes it to cinemas. To leave on the positive note, we have quite a few reports on some films being planned to get a release once the holy month of Muharram is over. Hope they do not disappoint us this time.

Final Editing by: Muhammad Aayan Mirza