Pakistan announced on Thursday that the screening of Indian films would be banned in the country’s cinemas, as tensions rise between the two countries over Kashmir region.
According to Pakistan’s Dunya News, Firdous Ashiq, an adviser to Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan, announced the ban in a tweet.
“No Indian movie will be screened in any Pakistani cinema. Drama, films and Indian content of this kind will be completely banned in Pakistan,” Firdous Ashiq wrote.
The Pakistani government has also been discussing a policy to forbid the distribution of all Indian cultural content in the country, as per the report.
The two nations have previously banned each other’s artistic content, or artists, when tensions have escalated. Since 2016, India’s Bollywood has banned Pakistani artists because an army camp in Kashmir was attacked by militants and several soldiers were killed. India blames the attack on militants “backed by Pakistan”, but Pakistan denied the allegation.
“No Bollywood movie has released in Pakistan this year, and I don’t think producers are even looking at it as a market,” Indian film distributor and industry tracker Girish Johar said.
File of the Alfred cinema, once the pride of single screen cinemas of Mumbai, India. /VCG Photo
Film bans between the two countries have often been announced when tensions rise. Earlier this year, former Pakistan Information and Broadcasting Minister Fawad Chaudhry also declared a ban on Indian films.
However, according to Indian media reports, about 70 percent of the revenue of Pakistani theaters relied on Indian films. Many young people were familiar with Indian actors such as Shah Rukh Khan, Aamir Khan and Salman Khan.
On the other hand, the ban on the Indian side has also hurt some filmmakers. After the Indian Motion Picture Producers’ Association’s ban on Pakistani actors, singers and technicians from working on Indian films back in 2016, some Indian filmmakers voiced their concerns about film cooperation.
Award-winning filmmaker Shonali Bose once talked about the cross-border tensions spilling over into the entertainment industry, saying that cinema should be free. “What if I want to make a film with Fawad Khan?”
A Pakistani woman (L) embraces her Indian Muslim relative (C) ahead of her departure to India via the Samjhota Express train, also called the Friendship Express that runs between Delhi and Attari in India and Lahore in Pakistan, after the train service was halted together with the film ban on August 8, 2019. /VCG Photo
The Indian and Pakistani troops recently exchanged fire several times near the Line of Actual Control in Jammu Kashmir. India has sent a large number of additional paramilitary troops to India-controlled Kashmir and intensified security measures.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres have expressed his concerns over the situation, and called on the two countries to refrain from any steps that could affect the special status of the disputed regions of Kashmir and Jammu.
(With inputs from Reuters, Xinhua)