Chopra’s romantic comedy Hum Tum, starring Saif Ali Khan and Rani Mukherjee, and Akbar Khan’s blockbuster historical Taj Mahal, with a star cast of Manisha Koirala, Kabir Bedi and Pooja Batra, will be the first Indian films to hit Pakistani theatres this summer. Although Indian films are currently banned, Gul estimates that pirated Bollywood movies make aprroximately Rs 20 crore in the Pakistani market. Bollywood hopes to recover 40 to 50 per cent of the revenue lost to piracy once the films are officially released in Pakistan.
With overall ties between the two countries improving, the Hindi film industry sees a window of opportunity opening. Last year, Pooja Bhatt’s directorial debut, Paap., became the first movie to have been officially screened in Pakistan, during the Karachi film festival.
Shringar Films also plans to set up an office in Pakistan and is planning some joint productions. Evernew’s next project, Ek, which will star Ajay Devgan and will have a Pakistani actress in the female lead, will be shot in Delhi, Islamabad and London, a trail that was unthinkable when the late Raj Kapoor wanted to make his dream project, Henna, an lndo-Pak love story in the late ’80s.
