Attendance in halls screening Bollywood movies dropped by almost 75 per cent in the wake of 26/11, Pakistanis are back and queueing up for Ghajini.
After giving Bollywood films a miss for a while amidst the tensions generated by the Mumbai attacks, Pakistanis are back in cinema halls queueing up to watch Aamir Khan's much-talked-about Ghajini.
Attendance in halls screening Bollywood movies dropped by almost 75 per cent in the wake of tensions between the two countries, but it seems it is difficult for Pakistanis to resist an Indian flick, never mind the anti-India rhetoric.
Ghajini opened to a good response three weeks ago and most Pakistanis are raving about the film.
"People are calling in to book tickets and so far, many have poured in to watch Ghajini," Kaisar Rafique of a Karachi cineplex told Instep magazine.
Rafique, however, rued the fact that since the pirated DVDs of Ghajini are available in the market, many people are watching the film at home.
"We are not getting the same response as Dostana or Race. It could have been brilliant if only pirated DVDs were not available in stores," he said.
Pakistan banned the screening of Shoot On Sight, an Indian production in which a Pakistani portrays a terrorist, last month when tensions between the two countries were at a high.
Acting on a directive from the culture ministry, Pakistan's censor board banned the screening of director Jag Mundhra's film, which is based on the impact on Muslims of the July 7, 2005 bombings in London.
The move led to talk of banning other Indian films and Indian channels which air the very popular saas-bahu soap operas and reality shows.
Ghajini became the only Indian film to earn one billion rupees at the box office across India in less than a week of its release on December 25. At a time when every industry is hit by recessionary trends, the film starring Aamir Khan broke all the previous records and set the cash registers ringing.
"Our cable guy continuously plays Ghajini on TV but we have come here to watch it again," Jurry Quraishi, who came along with a friend to watch the film, told the magazine.
"I love the film and what could be better than watching Aamir Khan on the projector! Had I known Ghajini would be played in the cinema here, I wouldn't have bothered watching it on television."
Another avid Indian film watcher said: "The audience applauded whenever Aamir would kick into full action and hooted at the quirky romance between Sanjay and Kalpana, played by Asin. They thoroughly enjoyed the film and that was expected.
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