There’s no business, like show business, Hollywood has been telling us for decades. And there’s certainly no denying the fact that nothing can quite parallel the glitz and glamour of the entertainment industry. But this glittery sheen can’t deflect from the reality that there is a lot more to tinsel town than sparkle and celebrity. At the end of the day, show business is, after all, a business, one that promises lucrative returns for those who are willing to expend creative energy and explore inventive ideas.

Done right, cinematic endeavours have the potential to reach audiences on a global scale, an art that has been mastered not only by the West but that has also helped countries like India and South Korea gain worldwide prominence.

Look at our film industry though and you’ll be left with nothing but frustration. “I can’t even call it an industry,” filmmaker Nabeel Qureshi tells Instep. “It is not even recognized by the government of Pakistan. So, we are still stuck on these issues,” he continues. And it’s easy to see exactly where his exasperation is coming from.

Past

For a country that once ranked among the largest producers of feature films, we have clearly fallen far. Under the weight of political and cultural constraints towards the end of the 1970s, the industry quickly declined, its collapse ringing the death knell for what once used to be a bustling arena.

Then came the rebuilding efforts, with filmmakers attempting to revitalize the local landscape while cinema operators supplemented their efforts with foreign content. Much has been made about this supposed “revival of cinema”. Don’t use that term in front of KaraFilm Festival director Hasan Zaidi though, for he is not a fan. “I’m irritated by the use of the phrase ‘revival of cinema’,” he says. “I’ve been hearing it since the 1990s.”

Hasan feels that one or two or even half a dozen films do not a revival make. “Yes, we’ve had a few good years in terms of finances, but it’s not been a sustained growth,” he explains. “We have a habit of shooting ourselves in the foot. And by ‘we’ I mean the policymakers in Pakistan, not the filmmakers. We have never allowed the momentum to build. Things started looking up from around 2013, but then came the ban on Indian films in 2016 which brought the whole cinema business to a sputtering halt. Things again seemed to be starting in 2017 and again the whole thing was cut short by another ban. Then you have the absurdities of the censor boards. Of course, the pandemic completely decimated whatever was left.”

Nabeel Qureshi shares a similar assessment, opining that his 2014 endeavour Na Maloom Afraad helped herald the so-called revival. “Commercial films started being made after Na Maloom Afraad,” he states. “Before that, we had films like Khuda Kay Liye, Bol, and Waar, which had their own agenda or were backed by ISI or were ISPR funded, but if I talk about independent films or when television channels started making films, that would be after NMA. If I look at the last six to seven years, cinema flourished a lot. We had Indian content back then as well so that was half of the reason, but still it was better. Unfortunately, because of Covid, halaat kafi nazuk daur sae guzar rahay hain.”

In the absence of a steady supply of local content, foreign material helped keep the cinema culture active. According to film distributor and Atrium Cinemas owner Nadeem Mandviwalla, Pakistani films had a 30 percent market share of the total box office in 2018, a figure he sees as a significant achievement in the five odd years since the revival, but that needed to be supported by foreign content to keep cinemas running.

“Cinemas need content to show which has popular demand, whether it is Pakistani or Indian,” Nadeem says. “We were importing 90 to 100 films from India which were banned again in 2019. The real problem remains that the void of those films must be filled. Pakistan only makes 15 to 20 films in a year, so until we start making more films ourselves, we will require the support of Indian films to survive.” Hollywood movies, he reveals, account for around 10 to 15 percent share of the market with significant popularity in the metro cities. “Out of the 75 cinema sites in the country, they can only help 10 cinema sites. The rest are still dependent on Pakistani or Indian content.”

Present

It isn’t just quantity in which the Pakistani film industry is lacking. Our releases are also far behind the rest of the world in quality, and we have yet to make a project that can stand shoulder to shoulder with foreign critical hits or spark worldwide interest.

Hasan Zaidi agrees that most of the content we produce is not up to the international mark. “Forget the U.S. or India,” he says, “we can’t [even] compare with the content being produced in countries like Argentina, South Korea, or Iran, for example. We are basically all trying to make masala commercial films because that is the only route those in control think works. They may be right to a certain extent in the current scenario, but nobody wants to take a risk and try something new either.” Hasan laments the lack of high concepts and the repeated use of, “the same type of slapstick, the same kind of romance, the same rah-rah patriotism.” As for those who have tried to do something a little different, he feels they have been let down by their execution.

And, of course, there is the current lull because of a pesky virus that refuses to go away, which has made matters even worse. There have only been a handful of releases since cinemas reopened in November last year; most if not all have underperformed at the box office.

Among them is Nabeel Qureshi’s Khel Khel Mein which was still running in cinemas as of mid-February. “I think it did pretty decent considering it was the first film to release after the nearly two-year break because of Covid,” the filmmaker opines. “People were a bit reluctant to go to cinemas initially. Also, people didn’t even know that movie theatres had reopened. Cinemas didn’t market the fact that they were back. So when we promoted the film, many people got to know about the reopening, which is good. The film is still going. I think it has crossed more than 6.5 or 7 crores by now. Let’s see where it goes. The Omicron wave in January once again decreased cinema traffic, but I hope the release of more films will increase the rush.”

“While Khel Khel Mein did some significant business,” Nadeem Mandviwalla adds, “it was not enough to satisfy the makers. Meanwhile, Kahay Dil Jidhar completely succumbed due to the simultaneous release of Spider-Man: No Way Home which remained hugely successful in Pakistan and the world over.” The businessman thinks that, like the rest of the world, local cinemas have also faced immense issues because of losses resulting from the one-and-a-half-year closure of movie theatres, and that just like the governments of other countries have bailed out their exhibitors with stimulus packages or very soft interest loans, the same needs to be done in Pakistan.

Future

With an uneven past and a wobbly present, the Pakistani film industry’s future looks just as shaky. “To be honest, unless we get our framework in order and understand the steps needed to achieve what we want to – which everyone agrees is a flourishing Pakistani film industry – the future looks pretty bleak,” says Hasan Zaidi. “There are some two dozen odd Pakistani films lying around for release because of the pandemic closures, which is great and will provide a spurt of good activity in the short run, whenever the releases start rolling out. But, in the long term, it will all sputter again unless we fix our overall vision. That vision needs to be to invest heavily in infrastructure, in training, and in building up resources such as in film writing and production. But all of that can only happen if we also understand the dynamics of cinema’s economics.”

Hasan also has suggestions for changes in how cinemas are run in Pakistan. “For one, I’d love it if there were cinemas with more diverse offerings, or even an arthouse cinema. I think also because there are still so few cinemas and there is a quasi-monopoly, some of them really bully and short-change filmmakers, taking huge percentages and delaying payments, etcetera. That should change because without filmmakers making money too, there will be no product. But we need to get to that place. We need plenty more cinemas first and that cannot happen in the current situation because nobody wants to invest.”

Nabeel Qureshi agrees that more cinemas would help the industry as a whole. “The number of screens should increase if cinemas, filmmakers, producers, and studios have to survive. If there are more screens, film budgets will increase. There are hardly a hundred screens. The budget is PKR 10 to 12 crore maximum; you can’t make films with a higher budget because you see that the box office is around PKR 30 to 35 crore at most. In Pakistan, if 6 to 7 lakh people see your film, it is considered a hit. So think how limited cinema is. Like, you can get 6 to 7 lakh viewers just from the population of Karachi. So there should be cinemas in smaller cities as well.”

He also sees the high price of tickets as a major issue. “Cinema should be cheaper because it is too expensive now. It is just entertainment for the elite now. Not even middle class can afford it because PKR 900 to 1000 per ticket is hard to afford when inflation is so high. So I think cinemas need to [rethink the pricing].”

He feels that discounts – from student or weekday rebates to offering different prices for different rows of seats – would be a step in the right direction. “If people come to the cinema, only then it will grow.”

Nadeem Mandviwalla, meanwhile, wants cinemas to be given the freedom to exhibit the films which are available on all other mediums or platforms in the country but are banned in cinemas. “We did get this opportunity from 2007 to 2019 and the profitability of the cinema business became the highest,” he says.” The result was that we started developing the most sophisticated and world class cinemas in Pakistan.”

As movie aficionados, we certainly hope that happens again. It’s about time the industry injects some creativity into its products, produces better content, attracts audiences back to cinemas, and goes on with the proverbial show.