KARACHI: Mahesh Bhatt is not a new name in Pakistan. Over the years, his films have been watched, dissected, criticized and appreciated. When he decided to come to Karachi, Bhatt says he had no fears about visiting Pakistan. “I am not a victim of the Islamophobia that is largely a creation of the Western media.”

The guest of a film festival, being held in the city, Bhatt was visibly impressed by what he saw in Karachi. From his hosts, a group of young fledging film producers, whom he called “world class,” with some “even better than what we have in Bollywood,” to the streets of the city, which are “cleaner than Bombay,” to the affection he has received during his stay here, “which I keep on receiving and am overwhelmed by it.”

Mr Bhatt says that for him, coming to Pakistan was a “great high”, although he has been interacting with Pakistanis for several years now. He is no alien to Muslim culture as his mother was a Shia Muslim from Lucknow, and was “the single most motivating factor in my life.” Amongst those, he has worked with, are Qateel Shifai, Mohsin Khan, Mehdi Hasan, Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan and more recently Ali Azmat and Rahat Ali Khan.

He is critical of the American sponsored “Islamophobia” that is sweeping the world. Mr Bhatt says that the damage has been done and now the Americans will start to “reap what they have sown.” He says that there is a limit to what has been happening in the West, where Muslims are being separated and targeted. “If you continuously embarrass the Muslim community, you will have to face the reprecussions,” he remarks.

Mr Bhatt says that the third world, especially the media, needs to get out of the clutches of the Western dominance of images. For him, there are several ways this can be done. He gives the example of Al Jazeera Television. “The BBC and CNN were tools of the American war machine and gave one-sided versions. This is ideological slavery and we have to get out of it.” For South Asia, he says, the need is to have its own media that projects a South Asian perspective.

In terms of Pakistan, while he does argue that Indian films should be allowed here, “it should not be done at the expense of the indigenous industry. That has to be protected.” Mr Bhatt argues if Indian movies are given a free hand in Pakistan, they will wipe out local industry. “India will then be guilty of the same crime as the Western media.” He says that the local voice has to remain.

Mahesh Bhatt argues that while you can import technology and expertise, the story for any cinema has to be local for people to relate to it. If the story is imported, he points out, no one will associate with it. He says, “In this regard, Pakistan needs to protect its local talent.”

Of Karachi, Mr Bhatt says that he expects the city to be the epicentre of some great cinema. “Any city or country that goes through a turbulent period produces some excellent creative thoughts. The same is the case with Iran. And from what I have seen in Karachi, I expect the film producers here to start changing the face of Pakistani cinema.”

Mr Bhatt comes across as an intelligent analyst of the world events, but says he is no Micheal Moore. “I do not use just cinema to get the message across. Cinema is just one medium.” All his life, he says, he has been fighting against prejudices and propaganda.

In India, Mahesh Bhatt says that he has had to face political and other pressure. “People say that the cinema is becoming very liberal in India. I don’t consider nudity in liberal cinema. For me, liberal cinema is the one where politically controversial topics are cleared by the censor for general viewing. That is actually not happening.”

Talking about the status of Muslims in India, Mr Bhatt says that it is not ideal. The wake up call, he says, was the Mumbai riots. He talks about how his wife berated him for giving his younger daughter a Muslim name when there were rumours that Hindu fundamentalists were going from school to school in Mumbai to check Muslim students.

“Suddenly, everything changed. We became vulnerable. It was not a good feeling,” he adds.

He says that he has been asked by many people in Pakistan whether only those Indian Muslims prosper who have married Hindus or flaunt their secular credentials. “I can say this for sure. Those Indian Muslims, especially in showbiz try to make a show of their Hindu wives or the fact that they are liberal. It may or may not work.”

Mr Bhatt argues that there are many conservative Muslims in showbiz and in other quarters of Indian society, who have not had to change their thoughts and are still doing extremely well. “To say there is no prejudice would be wrong. At the same time there is no systematic system of discrimination either.”

Now, he plans to do a film in Pakistan on the lines of Speilberg’s Schindler’s List. The idea is to show how people of different communities helped each other at great personal risk at the time of partition.