Cinema of Pakistan
South Asian cinema
Cinema of Afghanistan
Cinema of Bangladesh
Bengali cinema
Cinema of India
Assamese cinema
Bengali cinema
Bhojpuri cinema
Hindi cinema
Kannada cinema
Malayalam cinema
Marathi cinema
Oriya cinema
Punjabi cinema
Tamil cinema
Telugu cinema
Cinema of Nepal
Cinema of Pakistan
Karachi film industry
Lahore film industry
Pashto film industry
Cinema of Sri Lanka
The cinema of Pakistan refers to Pakistan’s
film industry. Most of the feature films shot
in Pakistan are in Urdu language but may
also include films in Punjabi, Pashto, Balochi
or Sindhi languages.
Before the Bangladesh Liberation War,
Pakistan had three main film production
centres: Lahore, Karachi and Dhaka. Dhaka
was
lost
after
1971.
The
regime of
Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, VCRs, film piracy,
the introduction of entertainment taxes, and
Islamic laws, have been some of the many
obstacles to the industry’s growth. Once
thriving, the cinema in Pakistan now barely
exists.[1]
The Pakistani film industry is credited
with having produced some of the most not-
able and recognised filmmakers, actors,
writers and directors, and for introducing
pop music to South Asia. Competition from
Bollywood, however, led to the industry’s de-
cline, although several Indo-Pakistan ven-
tures are promising to help in its revival.
History
Birth of cinema (1896–1910)
Further information: Cinema of India, Hiralal
Sen, H. S. Bhatavdekar, and Jamshedji Framji
Madan
Cinema was introduced to India on 7 July
1896, when the Lumiere brothers’ Cinémato-
graphe showed six short silent films at Wat-
son’s Hotel in Bombay.[2] A few years later in
1898, Hiralal Sen started filming scenes of
theatre productions in Calcutta,[3] inspired
by English professor Stephenson who had
brought to India the country’s first bio-
scope.[4]
Harischandra
Sakharam
Bhatavdekar imported a camera from London
at a price of 21 guineas and filmed the first
Indian documentary, a wrestling match in
Hanging Gardens, Bombay, in 1897.[5] He
also filmed the first Indian news film, a re-
cord of Rag