Pak cinema owners may lift ban on Indian films after ‘Ae Dil...’ release
Earnings from Indian films accounted for 75% of revenue in Pak in last 3 years
ISLAMABAD: The release of Fawad Khan’s film Ae Dil Hai Mushkil (ADHM) in India this week may help end a ban imposed by Pakistani exhibitors on the screening of Indian films, according to industry sources.
The ban on Indian movies was to have been lifted this week but last-minute developments, including a terror attack in Quetta that killed 60 people and was blamed by some in Pakistan on Indian elements, led to the postponement of a decision.
Industry sources confirmed that local exhibitors are suffering heavy losses because of the ban that was imposed after the Indian Motion Pictures Artists Association barred Pakistani actors and technicians from working in Indian films.
Film writer Hasan Zaidi said revenue from Indian films accounted for between 60% and 75% of box office revenues in Pakistan over the past three years. “For every 100 rupees earned by cinema owners, 60 to 75 rupees have been earned from Indian films. This is simply a function of the volume of Indian films being released,” he said.
In such a situation, there is immense pressure on cinemas to resume screening Indian movies. It is believed distributors and cinema owners from across Pakistan met last week to discuss the fate of their businesses following the ban on Indian films.
The Express Tribune reported it was decided that another meeting would be held on October 25 with Pakistani Exhibitors and Distributors Association chairman Zoraiz Lashari to announce the lifting of the ban. But after the terror attack in Quetta, a decision was delayed, sources said.
Lashari told the media on Wednesday, “Our basic demand was (the) lifting of the ban on Pakistani actors working in India and the Indian authorities have done that. Even Fawad Khan’s film is all set to be released in India on time, which is why we are looking forward to a more positive outcome of this entire scenario.”
The Maharashtra Navnirman Sena withdrew its objections to ADHM’S release after the film’s makers agreed to pay ₹5 crore to the Indian Army’s welfare fund to end a controversy over the casting of Fawad Khan.
Pakistani cinema owners said their ban was only a response to the Indian film industry’s actions and because Pakistan’s “honour” was at stake after actors such as Fawad Khan, Mahira Khan and Ali Zafar were forced to return from India. For web browsing outside of government applications, the service will have to be paid for after 100MB.
He added, there will be a separate web portal and mobile app to register and authenticate details for Wifi access, and people will be able to move seamlessly from one Wifi hotspot in the city to another using the same log-in details.
The project’s first phase is likely to cover mainly prime tourist and public recreation spots such as Gateway of India, Chowpatty, curve of the Queen’s necklace at Marine Drive promenade, Siddhivinayak Temple, Hanging Gardens and so on, an official from the state’s department of information technology said.
“We are yet to finalise the exact locations of the 500 hotspots. Since we want to complete the installation fast, we are choosing spots where poles for surveillance cameras already exist as part of the Mumbai CCTV project. Among these, we will freeze on those locations where the service providers and equipment provider can easily start Wifi services without having to lay out additional infrastructure, which will be time consuming. But all the locations will be those where there is a large footfall and where people are known to come and spend some time,” the official said.
In the second phase, the state government will also look at installing Wifi hotspots atop public buildings and government offices, the official said.
The government has already invited bids from Wifi service providers to set up the hotspots at the proposed locations, setting tight deadlines for the tendering process in its race to complete the project before the model code of conduct for elections kicks in in January. Potential bidders have been given just three days to submit their tenders, while the contractor will be given just one week from the date of the work order to supply the required equipment. brought down both day and night temperatures.
“While the cool continental air continues to persist over the western part of the country, the direction of winds has changed to northerly, which means cold winds from the northern parts of India. Both these factors have brought down temperatures over Mumbai,” said Shubhangi Bhute, director, Regional Meteorological Centre Mumbai, India Meteorological Department (IMD).
Bhute said temperatures are expected to remain similar for the next four days from Wednesday. “After weather factors over the Bay of Bengal recede, we expect temperatures to further fall because of only northerly winds prevailing over Mumbai,” she said.
Weathermen, however, said there is still time for the onset of winter. “With the withdrawal of monsoon, there is a shift in wind patterns from maritime air to continental. The continental air is colder than the maritime air and responsible for the winter season. However, it is too early to sustain itself so we cannot say winter has set in,” said Biswajit Mukhopadhyay, additional director general, IMD.
Meanwhile, thanks to a partly cloudy sky, day temperatures were closer to normal levels at Santacruz at 33 degrees Celsius and 2.4 degree Celsius below normal at south Mumbai with Colaba recording 30.8 degrees Celsius.
Moisture levels were low as humidity levels were recorded at 70% at both south Mumbai and the suburbs.
A partly cloudy sky has been predicted for Thursday with day and night temperatures at 33 degrees Celsius and 21 degrees Celsius respectively. The development came on a day chief minister Akhilesh Yadav made a sudden visit to the Raj Bhavan after another of his loyalists — minister of state for forests Pawan Pandey — was sacked from the party.
Raj Bhavan officials termed the visit a courtesy call, which lasted more than 30 minutes, in which the two exchanged Diwali greetings. The chief minister discussed the current political situation with the governor, sources said.
The party expelled Pandey for slapping Ashu Malik, a member of the legislative council and a close aide of party patriarch Mulayam Singh Yadav.
Shivpal, who is locked in a power tussle with nephew Akhilesh, announced the disciplinary action against Pandey, known to be a staunch supporter of the chief minister.
Any rapprochement between Shivpal and Akhilesh looks unlikely at the moment. The uncle vacated his official home in Lucknow on Wednesday.
Shivpal said the grand alliance would have taken shape much earlier.
“We would not have won the seventh MLC seat in the bypolls had RLD not voted for our candidate. But now you all know, who thwarted it,” he said, hinting at expelled party general secretary Ramgopal Yadav — a Mulayam cousin and Akhilesh loyalist.
If Mulayam’s alliance idea gains traction, the SP silver jubilee function would be the first show of strength of the proposed “mahagathbandhan”.
UP Congress president Raj Babbar denied getting any invite. But SP sources said invitations have gone out to Bihar chief minister Nitish Kumar and Sharad Yadav of the JD(U), former prime minister HD Deve Gowda of Janata Dal (Secular), RJD chief Lalu Prasad, who is related to Mulayam, and former Union minister Ajit Singh and his son, Jayant Chaudhary, of the RLD.
Shivpal has been credited with engineering a similar alliance in 2014, comprising the SP, RJD, JD(U), JD(S), Indian National Lok Dal (INLD) and Samajwadi Janata Party (Chandra Shekhar). The parties came together after the BJP swept the 2014 Lok Sabha elections. The constituent parties held meetings and joint demonstrations against the Narendra Modi government in New Delhi, but the alliance collapsed ahead of the Bihar polls.
Mistry said he inherited a debt-laden enterprise saddled with losses, naming the hotels, vehicles, steel, power, and telecom companies as “legacy hotspots”.
There was also a hint of the personal. Mistry said the Nano project, though deep in losses, has to continue because it supplies parts to an electric car company part owned by Ratan Tata.
“This product (Nano) has consistently lost money, peaking at ₹1,000 crore. As there is no line of sight to profitability… Any turnaround strategy for the com pany requires to shut it down Emotional reasons alone have kept us away from this crucia decision,” wrote Mistry.
He was equally scathing about the group’s overseas acquisi tions, sparing only Tetley and Jaguar Land Rover. The rest Mistry said, had left a large debt overhang. “The European steel business faced potential impairments in excess of $10 billion… Many foreign proper ties of Indian Hotels have been sold at a loss,” he said.
Ratan Tata had acquired the European steel business from Corus Group amid much fanfare It was the cornerstone of the glo bal edifice that Tata wanted to turn the group into.
If globalisation was Tata’s ambition, Nano was his heart’s desire. The little car had cap tured the global automobile industry’s imagination from the first time Ratan Tata talked some 15 years ago, about a car that would sell for $2,000 – ₹1 lakh at the time.
He took it to fruition in spite of the engineering challenges and took on chief minister Mamata Banerjee to move the project out of West Bengal to Gujarat. But the car’s sales haven’t matched the drama or the anticipation it generated.
Officially, Tata Sons didn’t comment. But its executives said the group would respond to every point in an email that had been drafted and would soon be sent to Mistry. The group’s lawyer, Abhishek Manu Singhvi said Mistry’s ouster was a simple case of a board losing confidence in its chairman and that needed no notice.