Mere hours after emotions were elated from the premiere of Superstar, reality struck a blow. First reviews of the film made their way online. Some of them unjustifiably nasty, some overly celebrating the film. The race to the get word out was on for a film that still had six days left until its release.

“We shouldn’t even be having premieres,” one source close to the film, who chose to stay anonymous, murmured in a doleful tone.

Early reviews, especially in online publications, blogs and social media platforms, are a norm now. And it has stuck a wedge between film distributors and the journalistic community. Increasingly, distributors are hitting back by shunning premieres altogether, only to avoid bad notices impacting their potential revenues.

“I forewarn producers about early bad press after premieres,” Amjad Rasheed, Chairman of Distribution Club, distributor of Heer Maan Jaa, Wrong No.2 and Roundabout tells me on the phone.

Producers choosing to stay friendly with entertainment journalists, at times facilitate tickets or screenings. But more and more these events rarely take place before the film’s day of release.

A new trend is emerging in Pakistani cinema: producers not holding a premiere of film for fear that negative early reviews could impact the box office. Is this trend healthy for Pakistan’s nascent film industry? And is there a way out?

Rasheed says he has always been a supporter of journalists, facilitating them time and again, and bad reviews, if justified, only help filmmakers understand their follies. Still, not one of his recent films has had a premiere. To Rasheed, it’s an unnecessary expense that impacts the producer’s financial recovery.

In Pakistan it is a norm for producers to pay for the premieres and publicity tours — unless otherwise negotiated in the distribution contract. The added overhead, coupled with publicity expenses — which also come out of the producer’s pocket — often only add to losses.

“Premieres are expensive,” says Irfan Malik, Head of ARY Films. “Big events can run up to two million rupees.” Malik also adds that sometimes it makes sense to strategise and not hold premieres. “For Parey Hut Love (PHL), we opted to hold a screening for close friends, family, production staff and select others, so that they, at least, did not have to pay for tickets,” Malik says. “We wanted to celebrate with the people who strived to make the film,” he added.

PHL’s private screening was originally slated to be held on the first day of release, but was rescheduled to a night before because of sold-out shows.

Such close-quartered screenings aren’t detrimental. Even if reviewers are invited and write-ups come out the next day, advance ticket sales — specifically during Eid runs — help sustain the box-office.

After Distribution Club, ARY Films was the first to stop relying on premieres; their last premiere was for Sherdil — an Air Force actioner that crashed after being shot-down by critics. The film, despite the bad press, still managed to make a tidy sum at the box-office, according to ARY Films. Just not as much as the producers were hoping.

“I feel shying away from a premiere could be the fear of reviews that could harm the film, [but at times] it is a matter of marketing spend,” Momina Duraid the producer of Superstar, Parwaaz Hai Junoon and Bin Roye wrote back in a message, when asked about the new trend.

“It’s difficult for smaller films to take the budget out,” she explained. “Producers decide on what they want to spend in marketing as it gets deducted from their income, so whether Hum Films or another distribution house releases a film, it will be the producers’ final call to go or not go for a premiere or international promotions,” she said.

Duraid was sending texts on the go; she had rushed off immediately after Superstar’s premiere, travelling overseas for the film’s international release. Going with her were producer Duraid Qureshi, screenwriter-music director Azaan Sami Khan and actors Bilal Ashraf and Mahira Khan, while director Ehteshamuddin was to join them later.

One other dilemma of holding early premieres in Pakistan is the negative impact reviews have on overseas distribution. International distribution rarely pays back because of high clearance, censor and publicity fees. Given the limited distribution avenues for Pakistani films, almost all distribution deals are struck with Bollywood conglomerates such as Eros, B4U and, in one rare case, Yash Raj Films. Foreign distributors seldom come in as profit and loss-sharing partners. It is even rarer for them to buy rights for their territories. Hum Films, however, is an exception to the norm; they have their own distribution offices in key countries with their long-term objective being to break-free from potential business roadblocks.

To create a brand identity for Pakistani films, producers with budgets to spare opt to physically take their actors to the UAE, the UK and North America — countries that have dedicated South Asian fan-followings.

“I like premieres as it is a lot of fun sharing your hard work with your fraternity, though I feel bad reviews are becoming a scare, especially if one is not confident about their film,” Duraid adds. “Reviewers should also hold bad reviews till release day, as our market is still very new and bad reviews that come out before a film’s actual release pull the morale down a lot.”

A day later, Badar Ikram, Head of Hum Films, says “Why not?” when I ask him whether premieres should be held.

“You only get to make 13-14 films every year in this country, and you work on a film for a long time, and even then if you don’t give yourself a moment to celebrate, what’s the use?

“What good is it to release a film — which is always a labour of love — in the dead silence of the night?” Ikram adds. “It’s disheartening for the entire production.

“[As it is] our filmmakers don’t make a lot of money — if they make any money at all. Filmmaking, for me specifically, is still mostly a hobby. As a filmmaker, I cannot survive just making films.”

But Ikram too is critical of the timings of reviews. “There is an unsaid embargo — and also an international ethical and journalistic practice — that you don’t publish a review before a film comes out.

If there are deadlines, Ikram tells me specifically with reference to print publications, and the review has to come out early, it should be intelligently scheduled.

“Just publish it at a decent time,” he says. A day before the release is fine. “It’s the responsibility of the publication,” Ikram continues. “Do we [the filmmaking community] have to spell it out? If we do, then the press would say that filmmakers and distributors are dictating what they should do.

“But if the practice still persists, what should we do? Should we have them sign release forms? I wouldn’t want to do that,” he replies.

On the positive side, Ikram say he is, in fact, happy that negative reviews came out immediately after the Superstar premiere. In this fast-paced world, he feels, the audience tends to forget things in a few days.

Published in Dawn, ICON, August 18th, 2019