The revival of the Pakistan film industry is still fairly nascent. Although we are improving with each passing year, it is still not the time to draw comparisons with other industries of the world. Having said that, Pakistan’s Lollywood and India’s Bollywood are often put head to head in discussions.

Most recently, an international news agency provided their take on this issue and called Pakistan’s Lollywood the more progressive industry in comparison with its Indian counterpart, Bollywood.

Up Against a Giant

The article published on the international publication, Culture Trip, talks extensively about the history of the cinema in two countries. It also released a two-part video series on Pakistani cinema, where it explored the relics of the film industry of the past and the possibilities that its revived version brings.

The publication says that Bollywood being the older and bigger industry boasts of bigger numbers of movies produced, even more so than Hollywood. Pakistan, on the other hand, has had a history of hitting rough patches that stopped the industry from making many films. But what Lollywood lacks in quantity, it definitely makes up in quality.

The article observes that over the years, Bollywood has become stale in terms of progressive cinema. The audience over there is used to a certain kind of colorful films and doesn’t accept anything different from the norm easily. Pakistani cinema in comparison is ‘starting afresh’.

Even with the industry churning out only 20 movies in 2018, there is a distinct diversity in terms of the subjects of the films. And it is this diversity that sets Lollywood on the progressive path.

Why Lollywood is Better than Bollywood

Two reasons are cited for why Lollywood has begun to rival Bollywood. The first being the shifting of the center of cinematic activities from Lahore to Karachi, which has allowed the industry to have larger creative freedom. And second, the already established and superior drama industry of the country.

Taking a note from the tight scripts of Pakistani dramas, the movie industry has applied the same tightness to the movie scripts. The movies prioritize good performances and great scripts over grandiose glamour.

“There is also a focus on social realism, which harks back to the golden ages of Bollywood and Lollywood, and the performances are generally considered to be of a higher standard,” the article reads in its study.

With sincere efforts being put in the complete revival of Pakistan’s film industry, this kind of positive focus from international platforms surely serves as a much-needed vindication.