Is the new film policy a hope for cinema in Pakistan?

The Federal Minister of Information expresses hope that the new policy
will revive the precarious industry

The government of Pakistan is finally on its way to implement a much awaited and comprehensive film policy and to start with has announced special concessions for the restoration of the film industry in the recent budget.

It is to be mentioned here that in 2017, the then Minister of Information, Maryam Aurangzeb had designed a film policy after the consultations with the people related to the industry but before it could be announced the tenure of her government ended.

The salient features of these concessions are; waiving of withholding tax from exhibitors and distributors of which the ultimate beneficiary would be producer of the film, reductions on income tax, exemption of any kind of custom duty on importing equipment for filmmaking and cinema building. Moreover, after recognizing film as an industry, banks would be more willing to provide loans to film makers and cinema owners. It also includes a Film Binding Fund, which will provide financial assistance to indie and upcoming film makers. To brand Pakistan a lucrative location for films, the foreign producers would be exempted from any kind of taxes if they shoot 70 per cent of their films in Pakistan.

The major stakeholders of the Pakistani film industry expressed their agreement on most of the concessions offered by the government and called them a step further for the betterment of industry.

The Bold also reached Information Minister of Information Maryum Aurengzeb to get her views on the policy announced by her ministry.

The Federal Minister was of the opinion that a workable film policy was much needed to show the brighter image of Pakistan. She said that Pakistan was about to vanish from the global cultural screen and the whole world saw Pakistan as a country of political chaos, sit-ins and bomb blasts.

“If we want to tell the world positive stories from Pakistan, there is no better way than films”, she stated and added that for the last 40 years, Pakistani cinema had been in doldrums and her government wanted to rebuild this entertainment opportunity for artists and as well as for people of this country.

The minister emphasized on the need of building single screen or low-cost cinema houses so the less-income group of the country could also avail this entertainment. She further said that there must be more cinemas opened country-wide that include both multiplexes and inexpensive structures.

Aurangzeb added that the new film policy also included the health insurance of artists to lessen the burden of healthcare from them.

In this regard, owner of Mandviwalla Cinemas, Nadeem Mandviwalla showed much of his satisfaction with the steps taken by the government for the improvement of film industry, but at the same time said it would be better if that policy had been announced in 2017 or 2018 when cinemas were flourishing and Bollywood films used to be screened here.

According to Mandviwalla, cinemas were already burdened with huge debt during the last two years of when cinemas were closed due to Covid, so in these situations, how one can think of building new cinema houses.  He added that in the difficult times of Covid, many countries including the USA helped a lot to save the cinema industry worldwide, otherwise many cinemas had been shut down by now.

He without any doubt said that cinema needed films and it was a fact that in Pakistan Hollywood and Bollywood g films do generally do more business. “Before February 2019, when Bollywood was not banned in Pakistan, we used to import about 90 Indian films every year, so to fill this gap we would need to produce more films.”

He appreciated the lifting of withholding tax. He further explained that before this cinema owners used to cut eight to 10 per cent withholding tax before giving distributors their share and then distributors used to do the same, before handing the amount over to producers. “That practice had put producers in a very difficult situation, so waiving this double taxation would make things better for the producers in the end,” he added.

The President of United Producers Association and Chairman of distribution company IMGC, Shaikh Amjad Rasheed said the film policy proposed in the recent budget was the result of their efforts which they started three to four years ago with the same minister Maryum Aurangzeb in her previous tenure.

Rasheed was much hopeful about this policy that for the very first time in the history of Pakistan, gave film a status of industry, which would make banks guaranteed in facilitating and providing loans and other benefits.

He also valued the allocation of 100 million rupees fund for filmmakers, as after the Covid, things had not been stable economically yet but at the same time, he also emphasized the need of announcing the modalities of this fund, and that the reserve should be handled by private sector and those who were not a beneficiary themselves.

Thirdly, he considered waiving the withholding tax (which varied from 16 to 20 per cent before) will benefit all the three components of the film industry, especially producers who faced maximum loss when they got money after deductions from cinema owners and distributors.

Sheikh also demanded to include Pakistani films in the export market, “Through TDAP there must be some export incentive given to Pakistani films. We face about 80 per cent loss if we take our films outside Pakistan. That is why most of the producers and distributors avoid taking this risk.”

He considered it necessary to release Pakistani films worldwide as our local market size was not big enough to pay back the expenses spent on a film. In this regard, he suggested the government give some subsidy on the promotional and publicity budget of films released outside Pakistan. He was assured that he would make the government agree to sort it out as he was already in negotiations with them.

The celebrated film producer of Pakistan, Fizza Ali Meerza said that the most encouraging thing about this film policy was giving filmmaking a status of industry.

“It is a big win and the government should be appreciated for this”, she said.

She added that the clauses in the bill would make easier for producers the process of film making.

About the Film Binding Fund, Meerza was of the view that it would help a lot to women producers besides those indie producers, who are making films for the first time and need finance to finish it.

She also expected the government to explain in detail the privileges given in the bill and how the concerned people and entities could benefit from them.

The ace actor and producer Mahira Khan was much happy that at last, film and cinema were accepted as an industry.

Khan was of the view that artists always look up to the government for any kind of support and assistance. “Actually Pakistani films and actors are making waves across the globe that is why it is much needed now that we promote our industry in order to gain more following for our films.”

She considered tax relief policy an effective tool, which would support producers to make more quality work, especially those independent filmmakers whose films need a small budget.

“I myself am an independent producer never thought I would ever be able to make a film, but after the announcement of these concessions by the government, I have started considering why not go with a small budget film.”

Actor and producer Fahad Mustafa was very optimistic about film policy and agreed that the government had announced it at the right time when some activity in the industry was finally resumed. However, he also thought that those steps should have been taken in 2017 or 2018, when our industry was flourishing in true sense, and that could pave the way for more aspiring producers and filmmakers to come forward.

The actor highly appreciated the five years tax holiday as he believed that it would help in removing the big burden from the shoulders of producers and also encourage new filmmakers to come forward.

Mustafa, though was of the view that those very important step must had been taken much earlier, but also agreed that even then, it would be very effective as after the Covid, cinema in Pakistan was still on a very dicey position; so these privileges for the industry will work in the benefit of the industry as a whole.

Javed Jabbar, the renowned media expert and former senator and Minister of Information, was adamant to censorship issues, also being a part of the film policy.

“I believe that instead of a censor board, we should use a name certification board, as has been adopted by many countries in the world. The certification board would categorise the film like, ‘for adults only’ or ‘children with adults’ or ‘for universal exhibition’ or even ‘mainly for children with adults’ to serve its purpose.”

He explained the ‘certification’ was a better word in a democracy like Pakistan where despite all the conflicts the media was free to a certain extent. He added that the whole world is a free space now connected through social media, so it was better to issue certificates to the films rather than denouncing the right of freedom of expression by censoring the contents and banning the films to be released.