Despite several Eid-ul-Adha releases, many movies took home a balanced share of the spoils this Eid-ul-Adha 2022.
Despite a major Marvel movie among the contenders and two other Hollywood movies, three local films were released simultaneously.
This year’s Eid releases included three local Lafangay, London Nahi Jaunga, and Quaid-e-Azam Zindabad. Meanwhile, Marvel’s Thor: Love and Thunder, and other Hollywood films Minions: The Rise of Gru and Top-Gun: Maverick, were also screened.
The audience had several choices as they do on almost every Eid. Despite Pakistani producers crying foul over the release of Marvel’s Dr. Strange in the Madness of the Multiverse on Eid-ul-Fitr, this time around the filmmakers behind Quaid-e-Azam Zindabad and London Nahi Jaunga weren’t phased. Fahad Mustafa shared how international releases are important.
“I don’t mind division [of revenue]. I don’t mind several films releasing in the cinemas at the same time. In fact, I welcome Thor as well. If we stop international releases, then what are we left with? We have to have a lot of releases. It’s simple – a good film will sustain regardless of what it’s put up against,” said Fahad Mustafa.
Meanwhile, Punjab Nahi Jaungi filmmaker Nadeem Baig shared how releasing a big-budget Hollywood film with many Eid-ul-Adha releases lined up isn’t a problem. Despite Pakistani filmmakers moving to court to restrict the number of foreign releases.
“I don’t think there’s an issue with Thor releasing at Eid. Thor can come and it should release on the same date. But the thing is that it is the local films that will run the Pakistani cinema. They should have visibility and the screen distribution should be fair as well and I am sure cinema owners, too, want Pakistani films to flourish. Since we don’t have Bollywood films releasing in Pakistan anymore, that slot is covered by Thor this year.”
Additionally, ace director Nadeem Baig opined that local films don’t really compete against one another at the Quaid-e-Azam Zindabad trailer launch.
“This is what we have learned in the last few years that in Pakistan where films are being produced sparsely and the challenges that we have from cinemas, distribution, recovery and all of that, we do have a competition with each other but at the same time, we have to support one another as well. We need to collectively produce more films,” he said.
Though, the Jawani Phir Nahi Ani filmmaker did suggest not releasing more than two Pakistani films at a time.
“I do think, however, that we shouldn’t release more than two films together. The precedent so far was that when we released Jawani Phir Nahi Ani, there were two more films released with us. One was Bollywood’s Singh is Blingg and another local film, Halla Gulla. But JPNA 1 worked. When we released Punjab Nahi Jaungi, there was Sultan and a few other films as well. But our film worked as well. With JPNA 2, we had three films released: Parwaaz Hai Junoon, Load Wedding, and one more. But people came, they were interested in watching a good film.”
What do you think? Let us know in the comments below.
Thor love and thunder wasn’t released in Rawalpindi and Islamabad till now Nd only two movies are play London nae jaunga and quaid-e-azam zindabad so I ask you what contenders they had they basically spoon fed this content during Eid top gun was also pulled of and it again showing if u guys are actually good pro Pakistani do research about this since this has happened twice doctor strange 2 was delayed and Thor love and thunder