LAHORE: The celluloid scene in Pakistan will offer on this Eid an Urdu, two Punjabi and four Pushto movies.

The mega film being released by Lollywood is ‘Sultanat’ having multi-star cast including artistes from across the border. The distributor and producer of the film, Chaudhry Kamran, told Dawn that it’s the most expensive (Rs250 million) movie ever produced in Pakistan.

It’s an action and romantic film created and directed by Syed Faisal Bokhari and shot in Dubai, Egypt, Pakistan and Singapore. Veteran writer Pervaiz Kalim has penned down the story and Sajid Hussain composed the music.

The film industry has pinned high hopes on the success of the movie. The cast is: Ahsan Khan, Javeria Abbasi, Javed Sheikh, Sila Hussein, Kashif Mehmood, Deepak Shirke, Akashdeep Saigal, Shweta Tiwari, Zainab Qayyum, Nayyar Ejaz, Shabbir Jan, Sara Loren and Mustafa Qureshi.

The filmmakers from Karachi last year supplied much oxygen to the crumbling industry. This year they have two movies ‘Operation 021’ and ‘Dukhtar’ but have decided to release these on Aug 14 instead of Eid.

The two Punjabi movies being released on Eid are ‘Jalwa’ and ‘Ayash’. Both are low-budget movies. Jalwa has been directed by Chaudhry Yaqoob and Ayash by Hanif Joya. No prominent film director or producer has lent a hand to Punjabi movies.

This Eid will also witness launch of four Pushto movies – ‘Azadi’, ‘Jawar Ger’, ‘Ilzaam’ and ‘Badmashan nu Badmash’.

Published in Dawn, July 24th, 2014