Dawn Images

A successful film is the result of good coordination between its director and producer, and that’s what’s different about our movie. This was stated by film actor Ghulam Mohiuddin while informing journalists at the Karachi Press Club on Tuesday evening on the film Sawal 700 Crore Dollar Ka in which his son Ali Mohiuddin plays the male lead.

Mohiuddin first talked about director Jan Mohammad whose son Jamshed Jan Mohammad has directed the film. He said Jan Mohammad belonged to a proud chapter in the history of Pakistani cinema. He said in his time technology hadn’t taken over the way it had today, but his son Jamshed had used technology to the fullest which the audience would be able to appreciate.

He said he in his career had worked in 300 films and had noticed that 90 per cent of the time, director and producer developed differences in the first spell of shooting. But, he claimed, Jamshed and producer Shahid Qureshi had great coordination. He said both were a nice addition to the film industry.

Mohiuddin said competition was a healthy thing because it brought favourable results. However, he said, we should promote Pakistani films being released on Eid day as Indian films, too, were screened on the occasion. He said the media’s support had shown that in recent times Pakistani movies had fared better at the box office than their Indian counterparts. He said these days the media support played an important part in such a competition.

‘Competition is good, injustice isn’t’

Mohiuddin said some people were of the opinion that actors (Javed Sheikh, Behroz Sabzwari etc) had their monopoly on the field of acting by introducing their sons and daughters, but in his son’s case it was Jamshed who saw him (Ali) at a wedding reception and decided to cast him in the film.

Jamshed Jan Mohammad said the film was being released on Eid. He said a few years back the government had announced that on Eid Pakistani films would be given priority, which happened for a year or so and foreign films again took over. He said competition was good but we should make sure that there’s no injustice. He said in China, 70 percent space was allotted for Chinese films. He said giving priority to Pakistani films would mean that our revenue would remain in our country.

Actress Qurutulain, who is playing the female lead in Sawal 700 Crore Dollar Ka, echoed the director’s sentiments and urged that Pakistani films should be our priority. She also requested the media to support newcomers.

Ali Mohiuddin said the film was different and made on a big scale.

When asked about the central idea of the story, Jamshed said he couldn’t give it away. All he could say was that it’s ‘total entertainment’.

Published in Dawn, June 1st, 2016