PESHAWAR, May 12: The business of video cassettes has tremendously shot up after the government imposed a ban on the Indian satellite channels, video shop owners told Dawn.

“Our business, which had been affected by the Indian satellite channels, is again picking momentum after the government placed a ban on these channels some six months back,” said a video shop owner at University Town area.

According to him, the people who had installed dish antennas or had got cable connections, have again switched back to watching movies on the VCRs. He said that Indian channels like Zee, Home and Star News etc., had very wide viewership in Pakistan because it aired news, songs and new Indian movies.

“The ban on Indian channels has deprived the people of the opportunity to watch movies of their liking because these channels telecast a dozen movies, both old and new, on a daily basis,” said another video cassette dealer.

He said the people were still watching the Indian movies, but on VCRs, not on cable or dish. Not only the songs and movies, these channels also aired interesting programmes liked and seen by the Pakistani viewers.

The video cassettes are being smuggled from India via Lahore by truck drivers who visit that city in connection with their profession. But the smuggling of cassettes has also become their business because they provide the cassettes of new films just a day or two after they are released in India.

According to the video cassette dealers, they also deal in English and Pakistani movies but the major source of their income was Indian songs and films which were more popular among the young people. They say that the people were not ready to buy Pakistani films from video shops but the demand for Indian films was so high they had to keep 10-20 prints of every new films.

“On weekends, we issue about 100 cassettes to our clients at the rate of Rs20 per 24 hours. The demand for old Indian movies never decreases because the Indian movie actors and actresses have become household names in this part of the world,” said another video shop owner at cantonment area.

The people even name their newborn babies after the names of Indian film stars. According to him, the people watch Indian movies even in hotels and buses.

Another video cassette dealer said there was a complete ban on the sale of Indian video and audio cassettes but they are the best selling stuff and without them, the business of cassettes is next to zero.

There are some 500 outlets in Peshawar dealing in cassettes. They say that bulk of their clientele was formed by people watching Indian movies and songs.

According to them, the people come to know about the new releases through Internet or newspapers and flock to the shops to get their copies.