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