KARACHI: With the mammoth box office success of Bilal Lashari’s The Legend of Maula Jatt last year — the film earned Rs100 crore (Rs1 billion) in less than three months in Pakistan alone — it was expected that some of its success will rub off on the films released on Eidul Fitr this year. Expected is the operative word here. Has it happened?

Four movies were screened on Eid. They were Money Back Guarantee (directed by Faisal Qureshi), Huey Tum Ajnabi (Kamran Shahid — who hosts a current affairs show on television), Dorr (Nadeem Cheema) and Daadal (Abu Aleeha).

While there was pre-release hype to some degree for these projects — except MBG which ran a vigorous campaign and it’s still on — one thought that a tad more was needed. After all since the masses don’t count on reviews, and all the reviews do is that they tell the story of a movie, films depend a great deal on ‘word of mouth’. It’s now been a week and if the internet is anything to go by, Money Back Guarantee appears to be heading the race in terms of making its presence felt at the box office. Is that factually correct?

The answer to the question will be ascertained in at least two weeks — perhaps more than that. But trade analysts on social media claim that the Faisal Qureshi-directed venture is leading on that count. On Eid weekend, the film had raked in 6.5crore rupees (Rs65 million) in Pakistan. Huey Tum Ajnabi was in second place which on the second day of Eid was able to collect two crore rupees (Rs20m).

Money Back Guarantee collects Rs65m in Pakistan on Eid weekend

Dealing in figures can be dicey. They can only be verified or denied by those who are in the business. What’s hard to deny is that even if one or two out of the four projects achieve noticeable monetary success, would that be enough to enable the Pakistani film industry — which includes distributors and exhibitors — to feel comfortable and happy?

One remembers, in 2022 a group of producers held a press conference at the Arts Council in Karachi protesting the release of Hollywood’s Dr Strange in the Multiverse of Madness alongside some Pakistani films. Thankfully, this year nothing of that sort happened as John Wick — Chapter 4 is showing along with the above-mentioned four local movies. The action-packed picture, which has done well globally, is doing fine in Pakistan, too. This, at least, shows a sign of maturity on the part of our film fraternity, which implies that it feels secure in its skin.

However, the bigger question remains: will our films be able to do well at the box office consistently? Because if that’s not going to happen, then those who make policies on culture and art will have to find plausible ways of making the film industry prosper.

Published in Dawn, May 2nd, 2023