Pakistani distributor Hammad Chaudhry

Cannes, May 22: Following the recent success of Welcome and Bhoothnath, the Pakistan government has privately indicated to local buyers and distributors that it is willing to “soften” up even further on its policy of importing films from India and clear as many as a dozen Bollywood movies in the near future.

This has been disclosed to The Telegraph by Hammad Chaudhry, who has been coming to Cannes for several years and is a director of his UK-based family firm, HKC Entertainment, which released Welcome and Bhoothnath in Pakistan with 13 prints each.

“Both have done very well, which is a very good sign,” said Chaudhry. “Welcome created so much (positive) noise.”

Chaudhry’s HKC Entertainment is negotiating to buy several more Bollywood films — for example, he would love to take Singh is King, starring Akshay Kumar and Katrina Kaif.

He is cautiously optimistic that film diplomacy will continue to help improve neighbourly relations. And bit by bit, the Pakistani government does appear to be turning a blind eye to its own rules.

One was that for an Indian film to qualify for release in Pakistan, the lead actor could not be Indian. Another was that only a movie that was “100 per cent shot” outside India would be considered for release.

But it seems the Pakistani authorities are being realistic and going along with the wishes of its audiences – without making too much of a song and dance about, well, Indian song and dance.

Pakistani audiences loved “the double treat” of Bhoothnath’s co-stars, Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan, said Chaudhry, who wondered aloud: “Does the release of Bhoothnath mean the rules are softening up even more?”.

Gurinder Chadha’s Bride and Prejudice was not strictly Bollywood or a big draw at the box office but Chaudhry took it to Pakistan three years ago to test the waters – its lead star was Aishwarya Rai.

“Everything started softening up after that,” said Chaudhry. With the film’s release, the government appeared to drop the rule that a movie’s lead could not be Indian. “It took 16 months to get the law changed — and we are now reaping the fruits.”

Although despairing Indian critics who come to Cannes appreciate only too well that stereotypical Bollywood films will not make the cut where competition is concerned, at least, at this festival, it is stereotypical Bollywood fare that Pakistan punters want. What they don’t want is art house cinema.

“Right now commercial Bollywood films stand the best chance of getting released and making money in Pakistan — films such as Bhoothnath, Sarkar Raj, Om Shanti Om, Hey Baby, and Singh is King. If you take a film like The Namesake, because we don’t have multiplexes, it is not going to do that well. It qualified but was not released.”

He explained: “Multiplex audiences are different – it is middle to upper class. Pakistani families did not feel comfortable going to single-screen cinemas. Right now there are only two multiplexes in Pakistan and many Indian companies are talking to people in Pakistan about the possibility of building multiplexes. It will happen because of softening relations. There are ways investments can be made via third countries such as the UK or the US. The moment we have multiplexes in Pakistan that’s when the revenues are going to shoot up.”

Bollywood films get quickly pirated in Pakistan with the government not especially bothered to act against the illegal trade. But here, too, there are signs of better appreciation that if the business of movies has to be placed on a professional footing, it is in Pakistan’s interest to curb piracy.

“There is now a lot of pressure from distributors like ourselves and from PEMRA (the Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority) to curb piracy because distributors’ money is at stake.”

Progress will be slow despite the change in government and films cleared on a case-by-case basis, warned Chaudhry, but provided Bollywood continues to make movies that are not overly anti-Pakistan, there will be no business like the India-Pakistan film business.

He pointed out that a Pakistani movie, Khuda Ke Liye, had done well in India, demonstrating “we can learn from each other”.

He said: “The Indian (entertainment) media is very big in Pakistan; unfortunately the awareness of Pakistan is not very big in India. Even (American) films like Iron Man have not done well. Indian movies are the flavour of the season.”