awad Khan, who was last seen in the record-breaking The Legend of Maula Jatt, was recently in Karachi to promote his upcoming ensemble film, Money Back Guarantee. Khan who graciously spoke to the media, said in a statement, “There is no rule to films. So I feel films can be entertaining, they can also have mess-ages in them… they can be good messages or messages that are just ambivalent.”

Khan also spoke about how releasing multiple films at the same time is not the smartest idea. To be perfectly fair, he put his finger on one of the pressing issues within the industry.

If you think about it, in Bollywood, a far more advanced film industry, the last of the superstars – Shah Rukh Khan, Salman Khan and Aamir Khan – never release their films at the same time because that would divide the audience. While SRK releases his films on Diwali, Salman Khan chooses to release his films on Eid while Aamir Khan has often, if not always, released his films on Christmas. And with thousands of screens dedicated to the films, the box office returns are significant.

The same rule applies to Hollywood where big superhero films and franchise-based films are not released on the same day. When Black Panther (before Chadwick Boseman’s death) was doing unbelievably well at the box office, Marvel Cinematic Universe held one of their films back, making sure that Black Panther has no MCU rival. Not surprisingly, the film crossed the one-billion-dollar mark. We agree with Fawad Khan when he says releasing multiple films is not the sharpest idea. And given the fact that we do not have enough screens across the country, it also becomes a battle between films where one tends to lose screen and those who wish to watch the film more than once might not be able to do so. Are Pakistani filmmakers listening?

–Maheen Sabeeh