Admitting that Pakistanis have a lot of talent would be a cliché, however we are a living example of how talent can be so ineffective if there isn’t a system in place to utilise it.

Made in Pakistan, the documentary produced by Talking Filmain has been screened at all the major centers and film festivals across the globe and wherever I was fortunate enough to be present at the venue, the audience asked me one question: “Why isn’t Pakistan producing more films which can improve its image and give the foreign audiences a chance to get acquainted with Pakistani culture and philosophy?” To that, like any other Pakistani, I had no answer.

After the screening, I returned home, satisfied knowing I had served my country in some capacity. Many of the audience members, who were American, British and Indian, acknowledged our efforts and said the film helped dispel some of the stereotypes.  At the same time, as much as I enjoyed making this film, I am not brave enough to produce another film with our company’s capital and not worry about how I will recover our investment! So here I am, very eager to make another film but where do I start? A good script in hand, we have painstakingly developed many, but how I do gather funds to get the ball rolling?

The industry makes the film – a film doesn’t make the industry.

Step 1: Cinemas – The government is not interested in funding films and with very few functioning cinemas in our country, the feasibility business plan is lopsided.  To attract private investment we need an industry.  To facilitate and enable cinema in Pakistan the current situation cries for the opening of more cinemas in the main cities of our country (Where I believe people still have some money left to spend on entertainment).  To kick start the industry, the government will have to reassure private investors that Indian films will be allowed to screen in Pakistan without any hindrance till our film industry is capable of producing 30-40 Urdu films a year. Only then will such private investors will have the heart and acumen to invest money in building cinemas in the country.

Indian movies are a major crowd puller and banning Indians movies on Eid or at anytime will not help our industry in any way.

Films being produced in Pakistan are of inferior quality and are not targeting the city audience who are the only ones happy to spend money on entertainment. I am not in favour of isolating those in more rural centers but we can’t afford to make films for those audiences only. In order to make the film business feasible, your primary focus has to be targeted towards the city audience who have the spending power.

Normally, a hit Indian movie with multiple screenings a day at DHA cinema Lahore makes around Rs 10 million in two weeks. Now if we have 10-15 decent cinemas in each city (Karachi, Lahore, Islamabad, Rawalpindi, Faisalabad, Sialkot, Hyderabad, Sukkur, Sargodha, Quetta, Peshawar to name a few). How much money do you think a good Pakistani film, promoted well, can make?  I’ll let you do the math.

Of course opening more cinemas will not solve the problem completely. When it comes to finances, no exhibitor will screen a Pakistani Film if it’s clashing with an Indian film starring Shahrukh Khan or Aamir Khan. That’s where our government will have to intervene and develop a strategy to protect and enhance Pakistani cinema. Banning Indian films will only be yet another manifestation of our government’s ad hoc attitude to cinema and law.

A possible solution:  Provide tax incentives to exhibitors to screen Pakistani films so that there is no evident dent in their profits. Moreover the government should make sure that a Pakistani film, when released, gets screen space at multiplexes and is given a prime time slot i.e., 6:00 pm to 11:00 pm at single screens. Time slots of 10:00 am or 2:00 pm only will not help.

Step 2: You spend six to 12 to months of your life in making a film. After it’s finished, naturally you are very eager to see a long queue of people outside the cinema halls when it releases. However, these days you’re looking at a minimum of Rs 5 to 6 million of marketing budget to promote your film effectively.

Hence, the need of another intervention by the government is in order. They should develop a coherent strategy to allow film makers to be able to promote their films without having to shed millions of rupees. Till our industry is strong enough to stand on its own feet, discounted airtime and print space should offered to every film maker in the country. If any broadcaster also happens to be the distributor of the film, conflict of interest should not arise and other broadcasters should be on board to promote the film aggressively.       For any Pakistani film, the top three broadcasters and newspapers in the country should be willing to promote our film at least 45 days before the release. Khuda Ke Liye is the most recent example and the results are there for everyone to see; in India the film made approx PKR 75 million alone and not running far behind that figure in Pakistan it did over PKR 70 million. Surprised?