Avatar steps into Pakistan as cinema catalyst
Saturday, 6 February 2010
Yangtze Yan
"After 20 years, this is my first time to watch a movie in cinema," Khalid told Xinhua when coming out of the Cinepax, the only cinema in Pakistan's twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
Khalid finally brought his whole family to see Avatar on a Saturday evening as he wished since the premier of the biggest Hollywood blockbuster in Pakistan in January. Without the 3D-IMAX devices in the cinema, he seemed a bit disappointed with the revolutionary science-fiction.
Khalid, in his forties, said he used to watch movies every week in his twenties but he lost the habit due to the dying film industry and the growing security concerns in Pakistan.
But moviegoers are queuing up to secure Avatar tickets. According to Farhan Khan, a Cinepax manager for Hollywood promotion,the box office of the animation hit 500 million U.S. dollars in its fifth week, defeating either American romances or Indian dramas.
Farhan Khan said the fans are mostly young people aging from 6 to 30. "I've seen a 50-year-old guy came to watch it and had a good time," he said, "it seems like the movie is breathtaking and captures the whole."
As the security gets stable and the market warms up, more and more film-loving Pakistanis step out of living rooms and go back into cinemas, said Saad Sharif, the marketing manager of Cinepax, a Pakistani cineplex company planning to build up more cinemas in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore in coming years.
Sharif said not all viewers go to theater for Avatar. He said some prefer Bollywood movies, such as Veer and Three Idiots, to Hollywood ones because of the language and culture attachment. Most people are fans of Chinese Kungfu movies, but they said they are seldom shown on screens in Pakistan.
Equally they are disappointed that Pakistani home-made films are long way behind. The movie industry based in Lahore, better known as Lollywood, a once-robust movie-making machine in 1960s and 1970s, has fallen victim to religious-based government policies, cable TV and DVD piracy.
Zeeshan Niazi, an independent film producer, told Xinhua that the industry has withered and vanished in the last couple of decades, suffering from government regulations, religious onslaughts and obsolete equipments. In 1980s, he said, over 1,000 movie houses operated in Pakistan but only 100 are in business now. "Lollywood is dead now," as Khalid put it.
Saad Sharif also wanted to screen homegrown movies in his cinema."I hope we have Lollywood movies and put it all on here, but unfortunately the movie industry is way behind other industries and we don't come up with quality ones," he said.
However, Sharif said, after the government lifted the ban on Indian movies and agreed the import from Hollywood, the Pakistani film industry is back on track to recovery. Khalid said he wishes Lollywood movies will come back. He said the success of the Pakistani movie Khuda Kay Liye ("In the Name of God") in 2008 conveyed a message. — Xinhua
"After 20 years, this is my first time to watch a movie in cinema," Khalid told Xinhua when coming out of the Cinepax, the only cinema in Pakistan's twin cities of Islamabad and Rawalpindi.
Khalid finally brought his whole family to see Avatar on a Saturday evening as he wished since the premier of the biggest Hollywood blockbuster in Pakistan in January. Without the 3D-IMAX devices in the cinema, he seemed a bit disappointed with the revolutionary science-fiction.
Khalid, in his forties, said he used to watch movies every week in his twenties but he lost the habit due to the dying film industry and the growing security concerns in Pakistan.
But moviegoers are queuing up to secure Avatar tickets. According to Farhan Khan, a Cinepax manager for Hollywood promotion,the box office of the animation hit 500 million U.S. dollars in its fifth week, defeating either American romances or Indian dramas.
Farhan Khan said the fans are mostly young people aging from 6 to 30. "I've seen a 50-year-old guy came to watch it and had a good time," he said, "it seems like the movie is breathtaking and captures the whole."
As the security gets stable and the market warms up, more and more film-loving Pakistanis step out of living rooms and go back into cinemas, said Saad Sharif, the marketing manager of Cinepax, a Pakistani cineplex company planning to build up more cinemas in Islamabad, Karachi and Lahore in coming years.
Sharif said not all viewers go to theater for Avatar. He said some prefer Bollywood movies, such as Veer and Three Idiots, to Hollywood ones because of the language and culture attachment. Most people are fans of Chinese Kungfu movies, but they said they are seldom shown on screens in Pakistan.
Equally they are disappointed that Pakistani home-made films are long way behind. The movie industry based in Lahore, better known as Lollywood, a once-robust movie-making machine in 1960s and 1970s, has fallen victim to religious-based government policies, cable TV and DVD piracy.
Zeeshan Niazi, an independent film producer, told Xinhua that the industry has withered and vanished in the last couple of decades, suffering from government regulations, religious onslaughts and obsolete equipments. In 1980s, he said, over 1,000 movie houses operated in Pakistan but only 100 are in business now. "Lollywood is dead now," as Khalid put it.
Saad Sharif also wanted to screen homegrown movies in his cinema."I hope we have Lollywood movies and put it all on here, but unfortunately the movie industry is way behind other industries and we don't come up with quality ones," he said.
However, Sharif said, after the government lifted the ban on Indian movies and agreed the import from Hollywood, the Pakistani film industry is back on track to recovery. Khalid said he wishes Lollywood movies will come back. He said the success of the Pakistani movie Khuda Kay Liye ("In the Name of God") in 2008 conveyed a message. — Xinhua