Why did Chain Aye Na and Salute flop at the box office? The directors explain
From the looks of it, now is a good time to be a part of the Pakistan film industry.
There’s a lot happening: new filmmakers are taking chances, television drama-makers are turning to filmmaking, newer blood is trying to make it big on the silver screen, major media houses are associating themselves with films, filmmakers are experimenting with all sorts of genres and new multiplexes allow them to target niche audiences.
Meanwhile, films are being shot at newer, more exotic locales, production values are going up, film scores are reigniting the audience’s interest, there’s an atmosphere of healthy competition among filmmakers and actors, and films are breaking box office records. Where there is young gun Nabeel Qureshi making films, there’s also the veteran Sangeeta. So it all sounds good.
But in this scheme of things, not everything is working out for everyone.
The old Lahore-based Pakistani film industry — snarkily labelled Lollywood — seems to have been left behind and is struggling to catch up with a brave new world. The recent failure of films produced by old stalwarts such as Syed Noor and Shehzad Rafique attests to this. Veteran actor and director Sangeeta’s film, in post-production for almost two years, has yet to see the inside of a cinema. Aside from Shaan, the actors once considered the mainstay of Pakistani cinema — such as Meera, Moammar Rana, Babar Ali, Saima, Resham et al — are nowhere to be seen.
From the evidence available so far, Lollywood still boasts an aesthetic that is far removed from the new-wave Pakistani cinema and which audiences have come to expect from international-standard productions and the technical revolution seems to have passed it by. Can the old guard recover and once again stake its claim at the forefront of Pakistani cinema? Or is Lollywood’s demise a foregone conclusion?
Some say it's the ticket prices...
Producer and director Shehzad Rafique recently made Salute based on the life of the young Aitzaz Hasan who gave up his life while trying to protect his school from a suicide bomber in the Hangu District in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa. He believes the old guard needs to up its game to cater to the audience of today which is more aware, educated and ready to watch different topics on screen.