Growing tension between India and Pakistan over the Kashmir issue has begun to take its toll on the relations of the film industries of the two countries. Among the casualties are number of “star shows,” on both sides of the border, which have been cancelled in the fall-out.
The most significant cancellation was the super star night of May 2 at Lahore, planned by cricketer Imran Khan in honor of Lata Mangeshkar, who has just been presented the Dadasaheb Phalke award by the President of India. The proceeds from the stage show were to have gone into financing a hospital for cancer patients, a project very dear to Imran’s heart.
Unfortunately at the eleventh hour, Lata backed out. A dejected Imran is reported to have said: “I ‘was most indebted to Lata Mangeshkar, a great artiste that she is, when she agreed to take part in a programme which she thought was a good enough cause. But now, politics is being mixed with human cases although the two are poles apart.”
As an afterthought, he added, “I am prepared to go to India even today if there is a cause to be served away from the political disturbances…”
In less than a fortnight, however, when he was supposed to be gracing the premier of Dev Anand’s Awwal number (as per announcement) at Bombay, Iran was found missing. The function had the Indian skipper Mohammad Azharuddin and Kapil Dev among the celebrities who attended. Nobody from Pakistan was present on the occasion.
Whether these absences were deliberate or plain coincidental is difficult to say at present. But at least one organization, the Pakistan film exhibitors, association, has gone on record complaining about “the refusal after acceptance of certain Indian artistes to attend the superstar shows which were widely publicized but had to be postponed for one reason or another. Earlier, it was the Babri Masjid issue, not it is Kashmir…”
Riaz Malik, chairman of the association has also pointed out that as organizer of some shows in Karachi and Lahore; he had spent seven million rupees in the past ‘one year. “Posters and tickets were printed, banners and costumes prepared, stadiums halls and hotels booked, publicity campaigns on radio, television and newspapers had been approved -some of them had already been released -but on Indian star came,” he said.
‘An anti-India campaign by a political religious party, in Pakistan and threats by its student’s wing to burn down the halls if the shows were held, were the main causes for the postmen. As one never to give up, Malik is however optimistic that things would improve and Indian stars would feel free to visit Pakistan.
In this atmosphere of mutual distrust, all hopes of fruitful interaction between film makers across the border are gradually receding. India is counting heavily on Pakistan for the retrieval of all those priceless prints of films it had lost on partition.
Article extracted from this publication >> May 25, 1990
