Media

Studies
Syed Faraz Ali
Syed Rafay Masood Kazmi
Shafaq Qazi

[FILM IN PAKISTANI MEDIA]

Sara Hamid Shafiq
Salman Ruvi Zaman
Rashid Saad Siddiqui
This is a brief history/research/analysis of Film Media in Pakistan. Done as part of a Media Studies
Course work. Course Instructor is Professor Fauzia Husain
History

Pre-partition to 1964

In 1947 there was a partition of the Indian Subcontinent into two parts, this also divided the media in
the two countries. It is easy to understand that the media audiences in both these parts were quite
similar, even though they were superficially geared to serve two different political ideals by the end of it.
The perspective of our focus is the Film Media and the film industry was rather sophisticated in pre-
partition India. There was no television, the films had substance and the creative flow of the people had
a natural high. The Film industry in countries has usually been concentrated in the large cities of a
country. The large cities – Bombay, Delhi, Calcutta, Lucknow, Bangalore, Pune, Lahore; became a part of
India however and this meant that the Film making capacity in Pakistan was rather constricted.

After partition a number of quality actors and film making staff migrated to the Pakistan in hope of a
flourishing film industry. For the first few decades’ production houses kept investing because of the
encouraging response from the public, there was ample return on investment 1. Partition spillovers from
the Indian film industry included technical experts, artists, writers, directors and audiences. Some
famous names are Khwaja Khursheed Anwar, a highly qualified individual involved in the film-making.
Riaz Shahi and Hasan Tariq were storyline people and directors. So we could see that the trend was that
the Subcontinental film industry’s successes, trends and functional effects colored Film Media in
Pakistan. 2

The films made in Pakistan in that era were rather sophisticated. The intellectual and creative elite had
focused itself to this genre of media. The First color film Sangam was produced in East Pakistan in 1964
(a time when cinema had become popular around the world) and Bahana (the first wide screen film)
and Mala (1965, the first wide screen color film).

It is important to notice here that the production side of things was mostly propelled by East Pakistan
which was not in mainland Pakistan. These people were few, influential and effective in driving the film
industry in Pakistan. But where was the next generation going to come from?

There were two major themes of films being produced; Hindustani and Muslim socials (such as Kartar
Sing by Saifuddin Saif based on a short story by Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi did well in Pakistan and in Delhi
as well. There was a growing propensity to ride in the coattails of the Indian Film Industry; This
translated into plagiarism which meant that Pakistani movies were often second or third hand stuff, like
Lakhte jigger and Hamida.3

1
Ahmed, Riazuddin. COO of Evernew Productions. April 2011, taken from a personal interview.
2
Peerzada, M Salman. April 2011, taken from a personal interview conducted by the author.
3
Noorani, Asif. April 2011.“ A fossilized film Industry” Printed in the slogan April 2011.
An analysis of pre partition film making will give you an insight into the sophistication of the audiences
and creators of this era. The Films had art value, cultural value; attracted audiences and the Government
did not play the hindering role which is in stark contrast to the role it plays today here and around the
globe. It is true that culture was not a priority of the respective governments as such or at least with
respect to the film media.

Another important aspect of this era is that the audience division was not very pronounced. Everybody
who watched films could claim and effectively function as belonging to the same social and ideological
sections of society. Naturally one thinks about the censorship and clustering of the market segments at
this point which characterizes modern film and other media.

How did audiences take part? The Cinemas were thriving. The major sources of revenue for films
were cinemas. The higher the cinema viewership, the higher the profits. Cinemas were a major source of
entertainment for people post partition but due to a number of socioeconomic reasons this trend
changed overtime. In light of the recent 3D movement, a reflective example is that the f irst 3d movie
was screened in 1954 at the Karachi Paradise cinema. Going to cinemas was an important part of the
lives of the people in the cities, public screenings were common. The ban of Indian film imports also
marked of the demise of cinemas in Pakistan.

1964 – The Advent of Television, Fundamentalism and Goodbye Film.

1964 marks an important year, it was the year Television was introduced in Pakistan. An estimated
statistic is that a 100 out of a 1000 active audiences switched to television. The division thus created had
a big part in segmenting the audiences into those who could afford television, the upper classes (elite?)
and those who could not and still consumed media as before. Production potential shifted to television,
it was en vogue. The intellectual elite shifted to Television; from literature, Art, Ashfaq and kamal (sic),
things which were not TV material were forced onto the TV in a classical display of mindless digression
from quality media.

A number of film production houses were forced to close because of the rising cost of production and
lack of profit. This was a combined result of the worsening economic conditions of the country and the
gradual lack of interest from the masses in films and cinemas. The production houses were barely
breaking even, thus production companies had to shift their focus from films to television
entertainment. The lack of support from the government in providing a development platform or any
subsidies was a major blow to the industry as well. Also the dearth of investment to increase human
capital and skills and techniques led to retarded growth or no growth at all.

According to Mr. Raziuddin of Evernew productions the average ratings for PTV went up to 40
on the scale, which means that 40% of the people in Pakistan with television access used to view it and
considering the reach of PTV it isn’t hard to comprehend. In times of today, a rating above 1 is
considered substantial keeping in mind the variety available to the consumers.
The film industry in Pakistan has never held an important position in Pakistani Media. On the technical
side, the technical evolution in other parts of the world was lost in Pakistan. The technical side is very
underdeveloped in Pakistan, which means that we are using cameras which were rendered obsolete in
Hollywood 60 years ago and lab work if it is to be of any quality has to be outsourced to places like Hong
Kong, London, America, and India. The track used for cameras are still not used.

It can be said that the film industry in Pakistan never took off. In the 60’s and 70’s Pakistan was a major
consumer of the Indian film industry. Cinemas were razed and replaced with apartment buildings and
malls and offices. The war with India broke off an important lifeline of the Pakistani film media and
indeed crumpled it with the widespread consumption of black market Indian Films 4.

With the world economies becoming predominantly capitalist, the era of consumerism began spreading
its roots in the Pakistani film industry as well. With the masses demanding more and more Bollywood
and Hollywood oriented films, there was a paradigm shift in film making as well. Products were geared
towards mimicking foreign movies. But this hybrid creation led to the evolution of ‘pseudo Indian’ and
‘pseudo American’ films which were impotent in terms of creativity and innovation and failed to
generate any sort of substantial viewership. This degeneration of films is amply demonstrated in the
names of such films:

 Daag
 International goreelay
 Society girl
 Super girl
 No paisa no problem

And if it weren’t for low quality ambitious films, the local films that were being made were very
ethnically centered, catering to the people of particular linguistic roots. Thus in a country the size of
Pakistan, this took away the last hope of successful commercial film making in Pakistan. 5Statistics point
towards this lack of uniformity in our industry, in 2009 a total of 8 Urdu movies, 7 Punjabi and 9 Pashtu
movies were made.

The Zia ul Haq era is the era where the shit hit the fan. The constriction and destruction of media, free
media, or at least according to our market ideals was slaughtered. The media was geared only to feed
propaganda to the people, Javed Jabbar defines propaganda as any information which is deliberately
tailored and disseminate to achieve a desired end 6. Censorship of that one long decade caused a
destruction which has till date not been reconstructed and set the technical and intellectual (brain
trade) quite far behind in Pakistan. Censorship created fear more than anything else, certain foreign
affairs were off limits but the fascist nature and affect has lefts its mark on Pakistan.

So when Azhar Abbas, who set up PTV in Pakistan, came back aboard in 1993-94 said “Things have gone
beyond repair”, and resigned six months later.
4
Shahid, S M. April 2011. The Good Old Movie Days, printed in the Slogan.
5
Pakistan Film E-magazine- [Link] History of Pakistani film making
6
Jabbar Javed, April 2011. Guest lectures on Media at IBA.
2011 – The Current State of Film in Pakistan

Recent times have brought no promise of revival for the Pakistani film industry, things are still gloomy
but that doesn’t mean that there is no room for improvement. At present though our biggest issue is the
inflow of foreign films and people preferring them over local films. The reasons are evident, these
Hollywood and Bollywood films are better finished products than a majority of our own films. The
frustrated masses of our country our now again looking back to film and cinema for providing a source
of entertainment in the turbulent times of today when there isn’t much to look forward to apart from
death and despair. And in these times these foreign films provide the right kind of content that is
preferred by our own people. What needs to be understood is that it’s not the label of Pakistani films
and our meager expectations from them that stop the people from watching them because yet again
some of our films outclass others in all fields. The success of khuda ke liye tells us that Pakistani cinema
goers are interested in good movies. There’s no particular characteristic of those movies that would
make this interest tainted with say, Hollywood or Bollywood bias. Generally, all we look forward to at
the end of the day is a good movie, be it lolly, bolly or holly.

This is further strengthened by the fact that khuda ke liye was a success despite the very conventional
Lollywood gunman Shaan, who’s Punjabi and Urdu movies are barely the discerning eye’s cup of tea.

Mehreen Jabbar7, director of Ramchand Pakistani, believes that at times it’s hard to compete with the
two most powerful film industries in the world. We can still make a name for ourselves by being
innovative and learning from the strategies they implement. This is pretty evident in Jabbar’s works for
the silver screen as well as TV broadcast, where her movies like Ramchand and TV serials like Daam and
Vasl have been immensely innovative, compared to conventional Pakistani TV serials.

But the fact remains that production houses now see more potential in buying licenses for showcasing
Indian and English films rather than local films. This is because they are aware of the response from the
public to these foreign films and the resulting profit making space.

Recently there has also been an emergence of Independent films made by young film makers in
Pakistan. This is a promising prospect because usually these projects are true works of art by these
individuals who aren’t able to get much support in our red tape-ridden industry. Some of these projects
include: From Omar Ali Khan’s ‘Zibahkhana’ Hammad Khan’s ‘Slackistan’, Shahbaz Shigri’s short ‘Sole
search’ Afia Nathanial’s ‘Neither the Veil nor the Four Walls’ – all indie ventures.

There are two things that provide us a positive prospect for the industry:

GROWTH OF THE DRAMA INDUSTRY:

7
Jabbar, Mehreen, ‘In-depth: Pakistan’s film industry and cinema culture’ Published in Daily Dawn 15th
December,2010
The drama industry in Pakistan provides a different picture, compared to the film industry. It is now
seeing a period of growth and boom with quality products being produced frequently. Though the
drama industry also saw a period of decline in recent times but it has found its way out of the slump
with ratings going higher and higher. The emergence of quality actors, directors, cameramen and other
technical staff is a promising sign for the film industry if these minds are used in making films as well.
The most notable thing is that producers are willing to invest ample amounts in drama production
because they view it as an interesting prospect of investment. And after the PEMRA regulations were
introduced, and with the growing trend of private channels there is now more room for drama and film
production. And in today’s day and age we have one advantage that we previously didn’t; we now have
the tools of marketing and advertisements. This offers two major advantages, firstly your films receive
extra coverage and a starting platform and secondly, it attracts a number of investors.

REEMERGENCE OF CINEMAS

Recent surges in cinema viewership are perhaps something to look forward to for people eying the
revival of the film industry. Viewership has increased primarily due to the showcasing of foreign films
and better cinemas but the public has started going back to cinemas. Lack of cinema culture was a major
hurdle, but trends are getter better now.

As of the last decade or so the lower class dominated cinema viewership for the most part, thus the
films were catered to their needs. The middle class or the elite didn’t go to those cinemas. The educated
class barely watched these films and didn’t even get involved in production or direction.

Though the positive prospect for the filming industry is the fact that film viewership is becoming very
diverse and the recent increase in art film productions is a testimony to this change.

Old time cinemas like Capri, Nishat and Prince who have stood the test of time are now on a much
better stage. Recent increase in revenues has led to improvement and refurbishment. That
automatically paves way for film making and production. Investors are trying to enmesh the cinema
culture with our daily activities by creating cinemas in malls. Better analysis of marketing figures and
statistics has led to better confidence of investors and better understanding of the film industry. Even
though the number of cinemas throughout the country has reduced from over 8700 in 1977 to 250 in
2006, there is promise of increasing figures.

8
[Link]-the international federation of film critics, “A Short History of Pakistani Films By Aijaz Gul”
[Link]
Analyses and Recommendations

Quality is an issue, production, post production, intellectual material, education, opportunities,

restricted platforms and a relatively pre-modern consumer base and creators of media. Comparison: In
Hollywood you have diversity, Titanic 200 million dollars and Indie films such as Blair witch project which
cost 12 thousand.

The government only taxed the entertainment industry and there were no supply side policies, even
though a few quality movies were produced such as baji, muthi bhar chawal, zehre ishq, lakhon mein
aik. But then again TV took away a lot of the talent, especially the educated younger generation; this
coincided with the mass availability of pirated Indian and western movies.

Government in India funds cultural movies every year, also ensuring that at least one Indian film is
selected for the Oscars. The South Indian Movie industry (which is based in Marathi) is a fueled by a
gigantic market and indeed just the South Indian movie industry represents a mammoth in itself. The
comparison carries significance because it functions in the same region but is technically efficient

The cinemas are few, serving less than 3 cities. They are expensive, there should be more to cater to
other segments of the population (clustering). The issue of intellectual property rights, piracy,
investment incentives (fiscal and supply restructuring). “Ramchand Pakistani” won a lot of international
awards – one being at the Fribourg festival in Switzerland – this should be an incentive for investors. The
insecurity cinema goers face in cities – crimes, harassment et al need to be addressed.

It is highly debatable whether or not Pakistan has the talent to fuel its film media (and cinema), it can be
said that the people here have a strong audience value; they may not be sophisticated audiences or
large enough like elsewhere but they can be tapped in more effectively.

“There is no talent in Pakistan” is something which is not so popularly accepted by public

opinion, we think that there is talent only that it is untapped, but we have to realize that maybe there is
no talent and work towards creation and harnessing of baby talents rather than being ignorantly
idealistic.

The quality of people involved only deteriorated, with only a few exceptional people still
producing material of high merit. And those who are creative and well trained aren’t paid much heed or
don’t get the desired response from the industry to continue working here. Hammad Khan, the director
of a film called ‘Slackistan’ is such an example. His film was banned in Pakistan because it couldn’t clear
the censor board’s requirement. In his frustrated rebuttal to the censor board he stated that, “ The
censor board’s verdict is oppressive, arbitrary and steeped in denial about life outside their government
offices. Maybe the establishment’s view is that young Pakistanis saying words like 'Taliban' and 'Lesbian'
represent a more potent threat than the bullets and bombs that are, day by day, finding increasing
legitimacy in the country.9” Apart from that there aren’t many institutions that can produce interested
scholars with relevant training and education in filming. The few that do include the Indus Valley school
of arts, Beaconhouse national university, Szabist, National College of Arts, Iqra University and the
Karachi University.

At the end of the day keeping all our optimistic fantasies apart, it’s no secret that our Film
industry is doomed. With the realization of this reality comes the step of concentrating our efforts on
what we have a comparative advantage at, Drama production. Film making is no formality, it’s a vast
medium which in order to be used successfully, needs the combination of a number of key factors
mentioned earlier, of which we barely possess a few. So the idea of mainstream Lollywood remains
utopian for now, specially keeping in mind the competition it faces from across the border and abroad.
As a consolation though, there seems more hope for independent ventures in our industry. They are
relatively creative, critically acclaimed, dense in terms of content and most importantly welcome among
the literate circle of our society. In times when there is a major question mark on our country’s
statehood, it’s not surprising to see our commercial film industry roam around with an even more
justifiable question mark on its legitimacy, in terms of what it’s creating. Considering what it is creating,
should it even be creating? Should the Pakistani Commercial film industry even strive to exist?

9
“slackistan Banned in Pakistan” Imtiaz, [Link] in the Express Tribune on January 25 2011.