A group of writers, actors and directors from the Pakistani film industry have decided to take legal action to ban Indian movies across Pakistan, according to a report on Smashits.
The artists include Pakistani actors Moamar Rana, Shaan, Meera, Sangeeta, Syed Noor and Shahid, directors Aslam Dar, Altaf Hussain, Masood Butt and Pervaiz Rana, along with producers Jani Malik and Chaudhry Kamran.
The report says that they pledged to stop the screening of Indian films in Pakistan. It adds that they are upset with Indian movies pulling more audiences compared to Pakistani movies. The artistes feel that if Indian films were not screened, Pakistani movies released on Eid-ul-Fitr would have fared much better.
Pakistani filmmaker Syed Noor said that their protest is not only to ban screenings of Indian films, but to revive Pakistani films. However, he added that they need the support of Indian filmmakers to come forward and shoot at Pakistani locations, and use their country’s artistes in Bollywood films.
When we contacted Bollywood’s celebrity publicist Dale Bhagwagar, who has handled the media for Pakistani artiste Meera in India, he was unaware of the actress being part of such a movement.
“Meera is currently in her home country Pakistan and I will have to check with her before I comment on a sensitive issue like this,” Dale said, adding that “Meera has always maintained that she sees herself as an ambassador of peace between India and Pakistan through the medium of films.”
