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Recently, India has permitted screening of Pakistani movies in the Indian movie theaters. According to the report published in Hindustan times, India and Pakistan have signed an agreement to distribute Pakistani movies in India. On the other hand, the ban on screening Indian movies is still intact in Pakistan. The only way of Pakistani people getting taste of Indian film industry is when Indian actors work in Pakistani productions.

The irony is that, Indian movies may not be permitted to be shown in Pakistani movie theatres but the DVD & CD stores in Pakistan is filled up with pirated copies of Hindi movies. I browsed Google to know about the real condition of the Pakistani movie industry and I found out that business of pirated CD & DVD is a 27 million dollar market over there. The new Indian movies are released even before their theatre premiere. I came across a post published in the Paktribune discussion forum. The writer talked about the problem in a very unique manner. The post says that Pakistan government does not allow Indian movies in Pakistani theatres mainly, for two reasons: first, Pakistani movie industry will collapse; people will not watch Pakistani movies any more. Second, Indian movies spread anti-Pakistani propaganda which is not good for Pakistan.

If India wants to enter in the Pakistani market then India should address this issue more seriously. Indian movie companies can come up with a quota of taking certain number of artists from Pakistan and this way Pakistan government would feel more encouraged to lift the ban. Indian movie producers would also have to address the issue of anti-Pakistan propaganda more seriously. Of course, Pakistan government can easily ban those movies in Pakistan that contain anti-Pakistan messages.

India and Pakistan are moving aggressively for greater economic cooperation these days. Film is one area that they should try more.   

Related Article:

Hindustan Times