First of all, huge apologies for not providing an update for so long into the year. Two reasons – firstly we have been extremely busy with the setting up of new outlets in Karachi as well as a second outlet in Lahore, so managing those has taken precedence over writing about the emaciated local film scene. Which brings me to point 2. Such a small number of films have been released this year that it was hardly worth doing a round up that consisted of about five titles! But, apologies none the less.

2003 has proved to be miserable year for the local film industry with financers finding more profitable and less dicey ways of investing their loot. It is truly a sad reflection on the shape of the industry when the biggest hit of the year is a film that was released in July of last year!

Javed Shaikh’s much hyped Yeh Dil Aap ka Hua has managed to more than live up to expectations and beyond raking in the money last year and showing incredibly sturdy legs this year even if the competition has been virtually non existent. The big guns from last Decembers Eid failed to ignite – Iqbal Kashmiri’s Manila ke Jasoos, shot in the Philippines started out fairly steadily but then started to fall away rapidly after the first week. The film may not qualify as an unmitigated disaster but it hardly turned a profit either performing far below expectations. Shaan’s Daku pulled some crowds to begin with on the strength of his name alone, but then the rot set in rather quickly and fatally and this Daku failed to run away with the loot. Again, not an outright washout, but not far off either. Syed Noor’s Buddha Gujjar bucked the trend and turned in very rosy profits in the Punjab circuit especially and also signalled an end to Noor’s dismal run of flops that had plagued him for the last two years or more. His barren run was somewhat halted by solid run of the Buddha Gujjar proving that Buddha movies were the in thing for some perverse reason. Asif Ali Pota’s much publicised Fire featured sworn enemies Reema and Meera together on screen for the first time since their highly publicised feud. Though there was some interest in the first week, the public soon realised that the film was all window dressing and if they’d seen the promo’s they’d seen enough – and so, audiences dried up by the second week and the film turned out to be an expensive dud leaving hasty producers who had dished out considerable sums for the rights with bad egg on their faces.

Madame Sangeeta’s crude revenge pot-boiler formula Sher-e-Azam managed to draw some crowds and the film did manage to turn a profit, but nothing like the success of her earlier hits Sher e Lahore and Dada Badmash. YDAKH continued its victory march with rock solid collections in Lahore and Karachi even after five months of release….and is has just celebrated a genuine “Golden Jubilee” (50 week) theatrical run in several cinemas and is still going steadily. The problem with YDKAH’s success is that the audiences are suddenly demanding a product that is similarly slick and when they are getting stuff like the fodder they have been dished out for the last so many years, they now seem to be turning their noses in the air and preferring to watch the latest Hindi film on cable TV instead. YDKAH has “spoiled” audience tastes and now they are having a difficult time digesting what had been their staple diet beforehand.

Sameena Pirzada had promised a “classy and different” film with Shararat which was released early in the New Year but alas the film turned out to be a dud and it didn’t take long for the word to spread that the film was a turkey. Business was dreadful from the onset and Shararat will go down as one of many miserable flops released during this calendar year. Parvez Rana released his Allah Nigehban which took a solid initial in Lahore but did paltry business in Karachi and subsequently things quietened down rapidly in Lahore as well…however the film, though hardly a hit hasn’t been one of the years resounding clangers. Alas Pehla Sajda proved a total clanger and died a dismal death at the box office barely scraping a second week run in most cinemas.

The next Eid bought some big guns together once again but once again they were eclipsed by Javed Shaikh's phenomenal hit. Darinda started fairly well but crashed after the first three days, burning out and falling by the way side very rapidly indeed. Kala Gujjar, another Iqbal Kashmiri effort also failed to get going and fizzled out very quickly indeed. Parvez Rana’s Jat da Vaer ended up as the sole Punjabi film released over the holiday and benefited due to this. However it failed to show any legs and started to fade rapidly after the first four or five days and therefore each of the Eid releases proved a disappointment. Hassan Askari’s 2002 release Waryam had been one of the few films to manage decent business last year but when it was released in the Sindh circuit this year, it dies very quickly indeed.

A cheapie called Dil Tote Tote Ho Gaya sank without a trace upon release but was such a cheap production that it hardly made a difference to investors but just to make sure, in Sindh investors refused to put up the rent for the cinemas they had booked for their super flop and so their prints were seized! With the cricket world cup just around the corner, exhibitors braced themselves for even smaller audiences than they had been witnessing over the last few months. Nobody dared to release any new material during the world cup with only the pathetic Dil Tote Tote Ho Gaya trying its luck and falling miserably flat on its face. Exhibitors stuck with the Eid fare which nobody was seemingly interested in, especially now that the World Cup was underway.

Pyar hi Pyar Main had been receiving massive exposure on the local cable channels and the expectations were high when the film opened. Sadly audiences once again found that had they watched the promo’s they had seen all there was to see in the film. The movie bombed adding to the heap of flops for the year. Parvez Rana’s Kalu Shahpuria arrived in the last week of March and after the success of Atif Chaudhary, this film was also based on a real life character – a gangster or goonda in local lingo. The film opened fairly well and continued to attract steady to decent business in the Punjab while it bombed outright in the Sindh circuit.

Next up was Lara Punjab Da from director Masood Butt which shone very briefly before nose-diving by the second week…yet another write off. Iqbal Kashmiri turned out one of those snake themed films called Tera Jadoo Chal Gaya but alas it was also rejected outright by the public adding to the long list of failures. The film had the same cast as YDAKH and indeed there was a considerable turn out on the first day, but apparently hordes of people started walking out during the show and the pattern was set to continue. Yunus “Maula Jat” Malik tried a come back of sorts with period piece Jeeva Gujjar but it too bombed out of sight leaving distributors red faced.

Most distributors, depressed by the state of affairs have been very hesitant to dish out the moolah for any new product and thus production has slowed to almost an all time low for Lollywood with barely 20 films hitting screens in the first half of the year. With the Taliban style government coming to power in the North West Frontier and Baluchistan even the Pushto films have taken a battering and cinemas have started pulling down the shutters indefinitely. All hopes are resting on a few upcoming releases among which are Laaj, Salakhen, Larki Punjaban (which is apparently attracting the wrath of the Sikh community in the UK – good advance publicity!) and of course Javed Shaikh’s highly anticipated follow up to YDAKH, Khule Aasman ke Neechay.

It will also be interesting to see how T3 performs locally seeing it is still fairly recent and “hot” rather than the usual stale, cobwebbed material that we get here in Pakistan. T2 was arguably the biggest ever hit in Pakistan and much is expected for T3 which opens on July 25th. Unfortunately the early buzz hasn’t been all that hot on the pirate grapevine concerning T3 and apparently Reese Witherspoon’s Legally Blonde 2 was at least as much in demand as T3 had been.

There were one or two interesting incidents related to the industry over the last couple of months. First of all there was the infamous case of poor Moammar Rana being thrashed to a pulp at the hands of some goons belonging to one of the many such head honcho's who serve as producers within the industry. In this case the drunken goons arrived late at Evernew Studios where Rana was preparing to shoot as scene with Noor. The goons arrived and turned on Noor at which point Rana intervened and was punished severely for doing so. Moammar Rana threatened to quit films on the spot but has been persuaded to at least complete his current assignments. The other fascinating story came from the Noor household where it was revealed (in court) that her parents had locked her up and were basically using her as a prostitute for their own benefits! The parents meanwhile argued that all they were doing was to try to stop Noor from marrying a Hindu and that is why they had to resort to locking her up! The courts have ordered that Noor be allowed to "go wherever she likes" after the poor woman was kept in an safe house for destitute women for ten days or so and told her avaricious parents to back off.

We would like to take this opportunity to mention that ZINDA LAASH (named as one of the 100 best ever Pakistani films by film expert Yasin Goreja) is due to make history as the very first Lollywood film to ever be released on DVD internationally. The official release date is October 14th, 2003 and the DVD will include a host of extra features and goodies that you will thoroughly enjoy. This is the ONLY complete version of the film that remains and it will be presented to you in a stunning restored version with remastered sound and optional subtitles. Please support the Lollywood cause by ordering your copy so that you receive your disc well in time for this years Halloween celebrations! ZINDA LAASH (THE LIVING CORPSE) is also to be honoured with a screening at this year’s extremely prestigious SITGES FILM FESTIVAL near Barcelona, Spain later in the year – a rare honour for a Lollywood film. The Hot Spot and our subsidiary Bubonic Films are thrilled to have played a massive part in bringing this rarely seen gem to cinema fans all over the world.

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