Don’t put curbs on Bollywood films, Prithviraj Chavan tells Pak minister

Chief minister Prithviraj Chavan on Tuesday batted for Bollywood and Indo-Pakistani trade, urging Pakistan to not put up any hurdles in the screening of films from the world’s largest film industry. The CM made this request when Pakistan commerce minister Makhdoom Muhammad Amin Fahim paid him a courtesy visit during the first leg of his India visit.

Pakistan allowed the screening of Bollywood films from 2008, but of late some Pakistani film producers have been demanding a ban or some sort of restriction on the showing of Bollywood films in Pakistan, saying the phenomenal popularity of Bollywood films was harming the local, and much smaller, Pakistani film industry centred in Lahore.

The CM said he had told the Pakistani commerce minister that just as Hollywood co-existed alongside Bollywood and Marathi films continued to hold their own vis-à-vis Bollywood,
Pakistani films too would find their own space despite the popularity of Bollywood.

Incidentally, the awesome popularity of Bollywood films in Pakistan means there is a thriving black market for pirated copies.
The CM said that while the two countries would continue their diplomatic dialogue with each other, they needed to explore trade potential. Chavan also dwelt on the potential for India-Pakistan trade. “Currently, our trade stands at $3 billion but it has the potential to touch $40 billion,” he pointed out, adding that most trade between the two countries was either illegal or routed through a third country, which only pushed up costs.

He pointed out that Maharashtra has surplus cotton and sugar, while Pakistan needed both these commodities. But with India having banned the export of these two items, it was not possible to send them across the border. “I will urge the central government to lift the export ban and allow us to export these items,” he said, adding that he had asked the Pakistani commerce ministry to look at importing the commodities from India.