Bollywood Banned

Bangladesh has lifted a four-decade ban on Indian films in a bid to boost attendance at cinemas, a government minister said, drawing loud complaints from local actors and directors.

Films produced by India's huge Bollywood entertainment industry have been banned from Bangladesh's cinemas since 1972, a year after the country's independence, to protect the local movie industry.

We lifted the ban to boost the cinema industry, Bangladesh Commerce Minister Faruk Khan told AFP.

Cinema hall owners, who have been clamouring to be allowed to show Indian films, said they expected to start showing Indian films shortly.

The number of cinema theatres has slid to 600 in 2010 from 1,600 in 2000 in the country with Bangladeshi films and soft-porn English-language films shown in movie houses failing to draw viewers.

Pirated DVD copies of Bollywood movies circulate widely in Bangladesh in the absence of them being shown in cinemas and the films are hugely popular.

The lifting of the ban comes amid warming relations between India and Bangladesh after ties worsened between the neighbours when an Islamist-allied government was in power in Dhaka from 2001 to 2006.

But not everyone supports the move. Indian films will completely destroy our film industry and our culture. At least 25,000 people will be jobless, said Masum Parvez Rubel, a leading star and a co-coordinator of a newly created front against Indian films.

The Lahore High Court has issued notices to the chairman of Pakistan Central Board of Film Censors (PCBFC) and a Deputy Attorney General in a case regarding exhibition of Indian films.

The applicants requested the court to declare the exhibition of Indian films in Pakistan by PCBFC as illegal.

Applicants prayed to the court to cancel the censor certificates issued by the board and restrain it from issuing further certificates.

In this case, PCBFC secretary had already filed a reply saying that it changed rules through which a film produced by foreign countries other than India despite having Indian cast could be exhibited in the country to facilitate film importers and to revive cinema industry. In order to revive Pakistan's cinema industry, which was declining day by day, the federal government made an amendment in the Rule 10 under which films produced by other countries containing Indian or Pakistani Artists could also be brought into the country, he said.

Sixteen Hindi films were screened in Pakistan last year after a nearly four-decade ban on Indian movies was lifted.

But strained ties between the neighbours following the Mumbai terror attack coupled with dipping fortunes of the Pakistani film industry may signal the end of this short lived golden phase.

Pakistan Censor Malik Shahnawaz Noon said the board was planning to again ban Indian movies as it was destroying the local film industry. I personally believe Indian films should not be screened in Pakistan and we are working to put a ban on Bollywood movies.

Others agreed with him. Said Syed Noor, a leading Pakistani writer-director-producer: Some people with vested interests don’t want our industry to flourish. He disclosed that the government was meeting members of the film fraternity to find ways to revive local cinema.