Pak official calls for screening more Iranian films in Pakistan

In an exclusive interview with IRNA, Syed Jamal Shah said that after voluntarily ban on Bollywood films by the cinema owners in Pakistan, there is a good opportunity for the Iranian films to be shown here which are also very close to the Pakistani culture.

“I would personally love to organize a Pakistani film week in Tehran and an Iranian film week here in Pakistan,” he said.

'Iran and Pakistan are very close to each other, they share the same culture, history, religion and also the same language. So we must complement each other in all sectors including film making.'

The official went on to say that movies which are relevant to local culture and homeland should be encouraged and Iranian movies are linked to their culture and literature that is why they are very popular all over the world. 

He said the Indian movies are much commercialized and unfortunately the film industry in Pakistan tried to copy the Bollywood movies.

Jamal Shah viewed that the edge to Iranian cinema on world cinema is that they focus on their own cultural values and yet their quality is remarkable. “In my meeting with the Iranian Cultural counselor in Pakistan, we discussed possibility on Iranian and Pakistani film weeks in both the countries,” he said.

He said no doubt that Indian films are very popular in Pakistan because the language of the two nations is similar, otherwise the culture shown in Indian movies is very different form here. “I think Iranian movies are closer to us culturally and we can become a good market for the Iranian films. People in Pakistan like to watch serious cinema,” he said.

The PNCA director general added, 'I see in future Iranian directors and film makers coming to Pakistan and having workshops for the Pakistani filmmakers, there is a very good scope for joint ventures between Iranian and Pakistani film industry and we can start this cooperation with a film on 'Iqbal Lahori'.

He said the Iranian music is also very well developed, very symphonic and very close to our culture. “I will make sure that Pakistani artists, actors, painters, folk singers go to Iran,” he said.

He said, 'I will talk to Pakistan television producers and other TV channels to bring Iranian TV dramas to Pakistan because after a ban on Bollywood content we have a space for the foreign content and Iranian drama is a very good choice for us. We can also show our dramas dubbed in Persian language in Iran. 

He added cinema owners in Pakistan have voluntarily stopped screening the Indian movies, but Iranian films can easily fill the vacuum and this would also become another opportunity to bring the two countries closer to each other,” he said.

The official said, 'We need to turn these ideas into reality and we must accelerate the pace of cooperation in whole field of visual arts. I think the exchange of delegations from visual and performing arts would be interesting. We need to explore new possibilities.”