Veteran filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt believes that Bollywood is largely responsible for reviving the “non-existent” cinema industry in Pakistan.
Bhatt expressed this sentiment on his return to India after a successful staging of a play based on his 1989 film Daddy in Karachi. The play opened to a full house in Karachi.
In an interview published in Bollywood Life, the National Award-winner, Mahesh Bhatt stated that the people of Pakistan have gotten a “new lease of life” because of Bollywood offerings.
After a ban was imposed on Indian films in Pakistan in 1968, Pakistan’s own film industry was unable to fill the void in the market with quality content. The result was one mediocre film after another, and Pakistani films acquired a reputation for vulgarity and obscenity, causing them to be shunned by discerning audiences, and many cinemas shut down due to lack of clientele. The ban was removed in 2006, but the stigma associated with Pakistani films persisted. Perception of Pakistani cinema began to change after films like Khuda kay Liye released in 2007, but good Pakistani films were few and far between, with the result that cinemas began to show Indian films.
According to Mahesh Bhatt, it was this interest in all things Bollywood which has prompted the revival of the Pakistani film industry.
“Their movie halls exhibit films starring Indian actors… because their own film industry is almost non-existent. Their film exhibition industry has been revived because of Bollywood offerings. They live with it… people there have got a new lease of life because of Bollywood,” said the director in his interview.
“Pakistani people have Indian actors figuring in their lives like in India… when you walk on the streets of Karachi, you have advertisements of Priyanka Chopra or Shah Rukh Khan endorsing some product or the other adorning the walls there,” Bhatt added.
Describing the immensively positive response to his play Daddy in Pakistan as “powerful”, Bhatt said “I was personally happy that it touched a lot of hearts and people were very happy to have us amidst them but it was more triumph for the director (Danish Iqbal) and Imran (lead actor Imran Zahid). I went there since the material was sourced from my film and I am a facilitator in the cultural process between India and Pakistan.
Bhatt is currently working on the promotion of his new 3D thriller Mr. X, starring his nephew Emraan Hashmi.
