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Bollywood Movies Come Back to Pakistan After 3-Month Ban

Street scene in Islamabad, Pakistan showing rickshaws, an old two-tone Morris Minor car and the local cinema advertising films often described as "Bollywood'.
Street scene in Islamabad, Pakistan showing rickshaws, an old two-tone Morris Minor car and the local cinema advertising films often described as "Bollywood'.Tim Graham—Getty Images
By Tara John

Pakistan‘s cinemas have lifted their self-imposed ban on Bollywood movies, after the nearly three-month ban cut their revenues by around half.

Pakistani cinema owners implemented the ban in late September after the Indian Motion Picture Producers’ Association voted to not work with Pakistani actors, musicians, or technicians. Their actions followed heightened tensions between both countries due to 19 Indian soldiers being killed in a terrorist attack in Indian-administered Kashmir, the Wall Street Journal reports.

Around 60% of Pakistan’s cinema revenue comes from Bollywood films, and the ban forced Pakistani cinema owners to lay off close to 2,000 employees and halve screenings, the chairman of the All Pakistan Film Exhibitors Association, Zoraiz Lashari, told the WSJ.

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