Note: The  feature image is of the winners from the 13th Lux Style Awards from last year.

Lux Style Awards has become the biggest event in celebrating the achievements in fashion, TV, film and music industries and the extravaganza will continue this year as well.

The nominees for 14th Lux Style Awards have been announced in 24 categories for fashion TV, film and music . The awards contain 4 dedicated categories for films, including Best Film, Best Film Director, Best Film Actor and Best Film Actress. Moreover, film nominees are also included in the music categories of Song of the Year and Best Original Sound Tracks.

Here is the list of nominees in core film categories for Lux Style Awards 2015.

Best Film

1. Dukhtar
2. Na Maloom Afraad
3. Operation 021

Best Film Director

1. Afia Nathaniel and Muhammad Khalid Ali for “Dukhtar”
2. Jamshed Mehmood Ansari and Summer Nicks for “Operation 021”
3. Nabeel Qureshi for “Na Maloom Afraad”

Best Film Actor

1. Ayub Khosa for “Operation 021”
2. Fahad Mustafa for “Na Maloom Afraad”
3. Javed Sheikh “Na Maloom Afraad”
4. Mohsin Abbas for “Na Maloom Afraad”
5. Salman Shahid for “Na Maloom Afraad”

Best Film Actress

1. Saleha Aref for “Dukhtar”
2. Samiya Mumtaz for “Dukhtar”
3. Urwa Hocain for “Na Maloom Afraad”

Besides, following nominees from films are selected in the categories of Music.

1. Na Maloom Afraad’s “Billi”, by Saima Iqbal, is selected in Song of the Year category.
2. Ya Reham Maula (Film: Dukhtar)
   2. Fizza Ali Meerza / Nabeel Qureshi for Billi (Film: Na Maloom Afraad)

‘Bin Roye’ was all set to create history and be the first  Pakistani film to simultaneously release in India as well as in a dozen other countries. Although this international release in itself was a huge accomplishment but the Indian release was definitely the most talked about region where ‘Bin Roye’ would spread its love.However things have taken a wrong turn as news has it that the Indian state of Maharashtra has banned the film and the film will not be releasing in the state.

Its interesting that Bollywood films have been releasing in Pakistan for years now and even   ‘Bajrangi Bhaijaan’ is releasing in Pakistan this friday but a Pakistani film gets banned in an Indian state and that too for just being Pakistani!

Well it is safe to say that the Indian dreams for ‘Bin Roye’ are surely crushed as the film is not releasing in the second-most populous sub national entity of India which includes the Bollywood headquarter Mumbai.

As India today writes “This decision was taken by B4U Films following threats by Maharashtra Navnirman Sena (MNS). The film wing of the MNS had threatened to vandalize the theatres if B4U decided to screen the movie in the state.”The reason given by the MNS was that ” Pakistan has been sponsoring terror attacks on the country particularly in Maharashtra. MNS also pointed out that the Jawans were being killed on the border.”

The film was scheduled to release on July 18 but since B4U has given in to the threats the film will not be screened in Maharashtra. Although the fate of the film for other states is yet to be determined but it would not be wrong to assume that the film might just not release in India at all.

Nadeem H Mandviwalla of Mandviwalla Entertainment took it to facebook to reveal his stance on the issue:

‘Bin Roye’ is releasing in India as well as in the UK, US, Canada, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Sweden and Denmark. Now is this surely a feat worth celebrating as this will not only open the gates for more such trade but will finally give Pakistan a much needed boost regarding its presence in the International arena. New markets will open up and the box-office numbers will also improve. We at Galaxy Lolywood applaud Momina Duraid and team for this accomplishment  however there is one huge drawback and the gravity of the matter will only unfold when the film hits cinemas.

Piracy or rather the lack of it is something that the Pakistani film Industry can boast of. Films have released in cinemas but its only once they make it to the television screens ( via a television premiere) that the piracy kicks in. Other than that piracy is an alien word for this new wave of cinema. Even the films that somehow have pirated versions out before the tv release are of a very inferior quality and come out months after the film releases ( case in point Na Maloom Afraad).

However the case in India is completely different. In India a film hits cinemas in the morning as they have shows as early as 9am and by the time the clock strikes 6 (or sometimes even earlier) the film is available online for viewing. As for the quality well it ranges from okay to master like at times. It is believed that specific cinema owners conduct special shows where the piracy takes place. Although an exact number cannot be placed on the amount lost to piracy but it would not be wrong to say that the number is huge.

A few years back when Bol released in Pakisatni cinemas it was apreciated and people went to the cinemas to go see it. People who wanted pirated versions had no other option but to go see it in cinemas. Two months later the film “Bol” was released in India and voila the very next day the film was out as the piracy had hit this mega-hit. Furthermore  the quality of the film was next to the master.

After ‘Bol’ however as we have had no India release this piracy business has stopped.But now with ‘Bin Roye’ releasing simultaneously in India as well as in many other countries the piracy seems inevitable. And for a country like Pakistan where articles with titles such as “Bin Roye full movie online” and search terms like ‘Bin Roye full film torrent’ are topping the search engines it is not hard to imagine what will happen once someone in India uploads the film.

We sincerely hope that the makers take strict actions and set in place all the precautionary meausres so a piracy debacle can be avoided or else it will be hard for the team to go on without Bin Roye…

Every other website seems to be conducting a poll and putting up “Bin Roye” vs “Wrong Number” as the title. We, however think that it would be a bit simplistic to just pit these two films against each other as we have three other major films releasing this Eid. We had planned this poll for quite some time now but we were waiting to see whether Bajrangi Bhaijaan would be coming to Pakistan. But with the censor certificate in its hand we think its high time we have our poll.

The poll asks you one simple question:-

Its Eid Day, you have some free time on your hands,which film would you want to go checkout first . In reality however the preferences might not play out  due to many factors like ticket unavailability, showtimes and all but assuming there is no such hurdle which film’s ticket would you first buy?

Vote for your favorites now and we will close the poll and announce the results on Chaand Raat.