Dawn Images

The Legend of Maula Jatt’s premiere in China reminded filmmaker Bilal Lashari about the power of cinema.

The director previously shared news of his blockbuster film breaking into the Chinese market, something he touted as a first for Pakistan. At the premiere in Beijing, Lashari said the warm welcome he received was something he hadn’t prepared for.

“I’ve been to many premieres. Lahore, Qatar, four cities for my previous film. I thought I knew what to expect. I didn’t,” he wrote in an Instagram post.

“It’s been almost four years since The Legend of Maula Jatt released in Pakistan. People have been telling me to move on for a while, and honestly, I did. I moved on a long time ago. New projects, new stories, new headspace. This China release always felt like it was happening to a version of me that already finished this chapter. And then last night happened,” he said.

Since the release of the film, Lashari has spearheaded Velo Sound Station.

“The warmth we received in Beijing, from the press, the industry, the people in that room, was something I genuinely wasn’t prepared for. Not polite interest. Real warmth. The kind directed at you as a person, not just at the thing you made,” he said.

The love for the film in Pakistan is overwhelming, he mused, but different. “It’s wrapped up in everything else. The stars, the story, the years of waiting. Sometimes, as the director, you almost disappear inside all of that. Which is beautiful. But it’s a different feeling.”

In Beijing, none of that context existed, Lashari said. “They didn’t know our actors. They didn’t know our industry. They came in with nothing. And what came back was something pure. Just two of us who travelled a long way to share it, a director and a distributor, received like we’d brought something that mattered.”

That love and warmth reminded him of something he’d started to take for granted. “No platform, no algorithm, no TikTok can do what a cinema does. A darkened room, strangers sitting together, a story unfolding. Last night reminded me why cinema is cinema.”

Though just two of them went to represent the film, Lashari said he wished the whole team could have been in that room. “The cast, the crew, the hundreds of people who gave years of their lives to this film. And especially Ammara Hikmat, who produced this film and couldn’t be there. Her work is in every frame of what Chinese audiences will watch. She should have been standing on that stage,” he said.

“The Legend of Maula Jatt opens across China tomorrow, May 21. The 75th anniversary of China-Pakistan diplomatic relations. A Pakistani film. A Chinese audience. But right now I’m not thinking about any of that. I’m thinking about that room last night. And what it felt like to be seen.”

The director ended his note with “Thank you, China” written in Mandarin.

The film stars Fawad and Mahira, Humaima Malick, Hamza Ali Abbasi, Gohar Rasheed, Faris Shafi and Ali Azmat, and is a reboot of the 1979 cult classic Maula Jatt, reimagining Punjab’s own superhero for a world audience.

The movie made Rs1 billion at the domestic box office and $10 million at the worldwide box office, as of January 2023, making it one of, if not the highest performing Pakistani films ever.

The film will be screened in cinemas across China from today (May 21).