CROSSING THE BORDER: Zulfi Syeed and Sonia Jehan in Taj Mahal (top); a poster of Akbar Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam

The year: 2003. Pooja Bhatt’s Paap, Nagesh Kukunoor’s Teen Deewarein and Somnath Sen’s Leela were being screened at the Kara Film Festival in Pakistan. The Indian cricket team too was playing in the country after a long time. Indian film producers wonder why their films can’t be screened on the other side of India’s border, particularly after the standing ovation Pooja got.

Much water has flown under the bridge after the SAARC summit that followed.

Cut to 2006. Akbar Asif’s Mughal-e-Azam as well as Akbar Khan’s Taj Mahal have managed to make it across the border and attract packed audiences. “I am happy my film has been released. But it is important that Yash Chopra’s Veer-Zaara and Shah Rukh Khan’s Main Hoon Na along with other commercial films get released there,” says Asif.

The initial reaction to both Bollywood films clearly raises hope for the average Indian film maker. “The territory could be as big as the Mumbai market. The kind of revenue that can come from Pakistan is huge,” admits producer Gaurang Doshi who last made Deewar ? Let’s Bring Our Heroes Home which dealt with Indian prisoners of war (PoWs) in Pakistan. Adds Sevy Ali, the Pakistani producer who co-produced Nazar along with Mahesh Bhatt: “This is basically a trial run to gauge public reaction. But there will be a gradual process of allowing Indian films to be screened in Pakistan. Sohni Mahiwal is slated to play next.

One snag. Much as they love watching Hindi films on pirated DVDs at home, Pakistani film producers are not exactly hurrahing the prospect of Indian films being screened in Pakistan. Reason: Hindi movies are a huge threat to them.

Pakistanis have an ongoing love affair with Hindi films. Pirated DVDs of the latest Hindi films hit the centrally located Rainbow Centre at Saddar in Karachi even before they are released in India.

“I don’t know how, but Indian films are seen in Pakistan a day before their release in India,” says Pakistani singer Ali Azmat.

The opposition of Pakistani film producers is not the only hitch, though. Films like Anil Sharma’s Gadar, Hero and Ab Tumhare Hawale Watan Saathiyon, Tinnu Verma’s Maa Tujhe Salaam, Gaurang Doshi’s Deewar or even the forthcoming Sanjay Dutt starrer Sarhad Paar with their strong anti-Pakistan rhetoric may draw huge crowds in India. That won’t be the case in Pakistan. Even Yash Chopra’s Veer-Zaara which shows an Indian PoW in a Pakistani jail for 22 years didn’t go down well with Pakistan’s president Musharraf as he viewed the file of the film when it was placed before him to allow it to be released in Pakistan.

“Whenever I go abroad and meet Pakistanis, the way they shower their love on me is unimaginable. So the problem is not that the India-Pakistan relationship is stopping our films from being released there. We want our films to be released there. But the problem is their associations,” admits film producer and director Anil Sharma.

But Nadeem Mandviwala, a Pakistani distributor and the owner of Nishat Theatre in Pakistan who released Mughal-e-Azam this week, says that more than just movies is involved. “We have to wait and see what the policy of the government will be. We cannot force the government on such issues. Agreed that it is a good move and will generate revenue as well, but the policy of the nation is important. It can happen. It will take time. The releases of these films are a clear exception,” says Mandviwala.

Still, film makers from Bollywood, dozens of whom have winged their way to Pakistan for the release of Taj Mahal, will try and press for more Hindi films being released in Pakistan. If this Bollywood diplomacy works, history will be made. After Partition, only two films have been screened in Pakistan ? Sheikh Mukhtiar’s Noor Jehan, the print of which was smuggled across the border, and the Indo-Pak co-production Kashish. A third film, Door Desh, directed by Ambrish Sangal, was bought by a Pakistani distributor, but it didn’t get very far.

“In that film, I took Nadeem from Pakistan, Babita from Bangladesh, Shashi Kapoor, Sharmila Tagore and Raj Babbar. We sold the film’s rights to Pakistan. But the Pakistani producers told their government that if Indian films are released in Pakistan, their industry would be destroyed. So the film was banned,” Ambrish Sangal said a few days before his death last October.

The stakes are high for both Bollywood and perhaps even the Pakistan government. Pirated Indian films which are watched on videotapes or DVDs re-enter India, adding to Bollywood’s woes. Then, as Ali Azmat points out, “If the government legalises the screening of Indian films in Pakistan, it can collect a lot of money as tax.”

Nevertheless, some Pakistani distributors scoff at Bollywood’s salivating over the Pakistani market. “Why should people spend Rs 100 to Rs 150 and watch a movie in a theatre when the entire family can watch it at home dirt cheap? Many theatres have shut in recent times and revenue has been shrinking. So I don’t know how big a market are we looking at,” says Mandviwala.

This apart, one way of pacifying Pakistan’s film makers would be by hitting the co-productions trail. Argues Pooja Bhatt, the actress and producer: “We should try not to wipe out the film industry there which can happen if Indian films which are far superior in content are released there. We should look at co-productions.”

“I think only co-productions can work,” adds Sevy Ali who is making another co-production with an Indian film maker.

Others too have hit this trail. Examples: Shashilal Nair’s co-production with Pakistani director Syed Noor to make Ladki Punjaban in Pakistan a while ago and Shashi Ranjan’s co-production Mungilal Rocks with Syma Khar, sister-in-law of the Pakistani writer Tehmina Durrani. The film stars Boman Irani.

In sum, the screening of Mughal-e-Azam and Taj Mahal in Pakistan is just the trailer ? the main picture has yet to be screened.