India the eastern neighbor country of Pakistan is famous for many things especially its hindi film industry known as Bollywood. Hindi films produced in Bollywood are exteremly popular in Pakistan and mostly attract massive crowds towards cinemas. In Pakistan, Hindi movies are considered vital for the survival of cinema houses as mostly Pakistani cine goers prefer Indian movies over locally produced films.
In recent times many Indian films have earned considerable revenues in Pakistan, and thus it is appearing as a lucrative market for Hindi films. However filming in India is not limited to Hindi, and a large number of films are also made other regional languages like Tamil, Bengali, Gujarati, Punjabi etc. Like Hindi which is also understood in Pakistan, another language Punjabi is also understood on both sides of the border. There are more Punjabi speakers in Pakistan as compared to India, however the state of local Punjabi cinema in Pakistan is at stand still.
Looking at the spectacular and record breaking business of Hindi movies in Pakistan, Indian Punjabi film makers are also interested to exploit the potential of Pakistani market. In past locally produced Punjabi films have attracted viewers as well as business with some super hit films like Chooriyan and Majan. However gradually the production of Punjabi films also declined like Urdu films.
Indian Punjabi film makers knew about the hidden potential of punjabi films in Pakistan, and are considering to release Indian Punjabi films in Pakistan too. There are fair chances that Indian Punjabi films will also be welcomed with same enthusiasm as Indian Hindi films. So in near future we might also see Indian PUnjabi films along with Hindi films in our cinemas.
A recent report by BBC has covered the aspect of Indian PUnjabi film makers
https://vimeo.com/108319857
Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/urdu/multimedia/2014/07/140723_punjabi_film_india_aw
Rashid Nazir Ali
