Strike cinema operators’ act of desperation
KARACHI, March 15: All 54 cinemas in the southern circuit of the Pakistani film industry comprising Sindh and Balochistan remained closed on Thursday to protest against the government’s failure to curb film piracy, a top official of the Pakistan Film Exhibitors Association (South Zone) said. “The remaining 38 cinema houses in Karachi, besides, eleven cinema houses in the rest of Sindh and five in Quetta remained closed on Thursday,” Nadeem Mandviwala, Chairman PFEA (South Zone) told Dawn.
Reports coming from Punjab and NWFP circuit said that the strike was complete and some 300 cinemas across the country opted not to raise their curtains for the three daily regular shows on Thursday.
According to Mr Mandviwala, none of the government official had contacted him or any other member of the exhibitors’ or industry, which showed the authorities were indifferent towards the industry, which he said was on the verge of total collapse. “No government official has bothered to contact us and inquire about our grievances, which we have been informing them of for the last many years,” he said.
Visits to some cinemas in the city showed their owners had closed the premises and put up a banners and pasted pamphlets outside the cinema houses informing the public of the one-day strike with appeals to the government to rein in the cable operators who they said were involved in full-scale piracy of the latest Hollywood and Indian movies. Sadly, the public’s reaction to the strike was casual while many were not even aware of the strike.
Mr Mandviwala asked about the public’s response said the people were justified in giving such a response because no one would spend money on something available free in their drawing room.
“We want the government to devise regulations and permit us showing Indian movies, which is the only option left to save this business. Besides, strict regulations should also be devised for the cable operators who run their own illegal DVD channels,” he said. “We want a protective environment to run our businesses,” he added.
Indian movies are hugely popular in Pakistan but cinemas, despite appealing repeatedly have not been allowed to show them since 1965. Compounding the problem for cinema operators, cheap copies of the latest Bollywood and Western films are available in markets for people to buy and watch at home. The cable TV operators also screen them.
Mr Mandviwalla said the strike was an act of desperation by cinema operators facing a threat to their survival. “The ban on showing Indian films in cinemas makes no sense when they are freely available in the market. Either allow us to screen Indian films or ban pirated copies,” he said.
The number of cinemas in the Southern Zone has declined from 116 a decade ago to 54 today. Many have been converted into shopping centres.
Mr Mandviwala said the exhibitors would observe strike every Thursday till April 5 and then go on a week long strike starting from April 12 if the issue remained unresolved.
Source: Dawn
Date:3/16/2007
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