KARACHI: No one should dispute the fact that after a long period of technologically tacky and thematically passé films, especially in the 1990s, Pakistan has begun making movies that can now be shown on the international circuit with a fair degree of pride.

At the heart of this resurgence, if it can be dubbed so, is the city of Karachi. The shift from Lahore to the city by the sea has apparently done well for the country’s filmmakers, because the electronic media boom in the first decade of the 21st century turned Karachi into a kind of media city of Pakistan, as a result of which both technicians and performers, not to mention financiers, felt comfortable working in the Sindh capital. Now every year, about a dozen films are made in Pakistan, and a majority of them, if not all, are shot in Karachi.

This healthy development has provoked some people to call this renaissance of sorts ‘revival of the Pakistani film industry’. This means that the industry is concentrated in Karachi, just like Hollywood is in Los Angeles and Bollywood in Mumbai. But let’s not count our chickens before they are hatched. The question, therefore, that needs to be asked is whether the megapolis will retain its position as the centre of movie-making activities and whether its film business can now be considered an ‘industry’.

One of the established definitions (and there are a few) of an industry is that it’s a group of productive and profit-making enterprises. A potent example of it is Hollywood. Last year, the National Endowment for the Arts and US Bureau of Economic Analysis said that art and culture contributed more than $698 billion to the economy (4.32 per cent of American goods and services). Obviously, Hollywood played the biggest part in it.

Similarly, in 2013, the entertainment sector in India contributed five trillion Indian rupees to the Indian economy, which was 0.5 per cent of the country’s GDP. This, by the way, happened at a time when India’s economy wasn’t particularly faring well. Yes, Pakistan, compared to the above-mentioned two countries, is much smaller. So let’s analyse the situation with respect to our size. Is the Karachi film industry contributing even a modicum of amount to Pakistan’s economy? Let’s rephrase the question: have the films (Jawani Phir Nahin Aani, Ho Mann Jahan etc) that had success recently at the box office, enabled their producers to roll in dough and help, in whichever way, the country’s economic growth? Also, is it Karachi’s metropolitan character that’s attracting the new breed of directors to make the city where they can pursue their creative dreams?

Talking to Dawn, Ghazanfar Ali, founder of the Indus TV Network, said: “Any industry in Pakistan has a limited life because there is no patronage. As far as whether it will stay in Karachi is concerned, I think it will stay all over Pakistan for a while because, again, there is no patronage. You see, in our society there are more people inclined to dismantle things (her cheez ko bigarnay waalay zayada hotay hain) — those who like what’s being done as well as those who don’t like anything at all.”

Satish Anand, CEO of Eveready Pictures, said: “The industry has taken rebirth in Karachi, so the thing is for the time being its growth or upbringing (parvarish) is happening in the city. Once it takes off in a big way, it can move in any direction, because when infrastructure is made and there is volume, it becomes cost-effective and serious things can be done. We are now basically getting into that mode.

“You can call it an industry. Reason being, big numbers are coming into investment. The brands are now investing, channels are investing and private producers are getting finances. Definitely, it has all the makings. The moment it streamlines, presentation and policy will fall into place. If you look at the last 12 months a film on average costs Rs50 million, and Jawani Phir Nahin Aani touched the Rs500 million mark. What does that indicate?” said Mr Anand.

Mandviwalla Entertainment chief executive Nadeem Mandviwalla said: “It will stay in Karachi, but the Lahore industry will have to rebuild itself because there is a serious gap of one sector which has survived the maximum time in Pakistan. I’m referring to Punjabi films. Punjabi cinema will revive as Lahore has always been the city where Punjabi movies were made.

“An industry which does not have a studio is not an industry. However, growth is taking place, and I’m sure it is going to develop into an industry unless someone stops the whole process. As for its contribution to the economy, it is doing that but it’s all unregulated. The DVD, cable and music sectors are unregulated. In such a situation, how will you know about its contribution,” said Mr Mandviwalla.

Last month, veteran filmmaker Syed Noor had a chat with journalists at the Karachi Press Club. During the discussion he complained that Karachi was a beautiful city and yet no director was showing its beauty in their films. He avowed that in his upcoming film he would not show any side of the city which was not good. If he is right, then it implies that an industry should have an aesthetic component to it, and not just a business dimension.

Published in Dawn, June 22nd, 2016