Pakistan allows Bollywood flick "Welcome" in theatres

Karachi, Feb.8 : The Pakistan Government today allowed the screening of the Bollywood film "Welcome" in theatres across the country.

The release of the film has come days after a Pakistan Senate standing committee on culture had recommended to the government to allow exhibition of Indian films under a proper censorship policy.

Currently, there are three Indian movies - Goal , Gangster and Welcome - running in different theatres in the country.

Saadia Khan, a college student who had lined up at the Nishat cinema on Thursday with a group of friends to get advance tickets for Welcome

Since 1965, only three Bollywood films -- Mughal-e-Azam, the 1960 classic starring Dilip Kumar and Madhubala; Taj Mahal, a 2005 film, starring Pakistani actress Sonia Jehan; and the 1984 film Sohni Mahiwal. Cinema owners in Pakistan are keen to screen Bollywood films, but local filmmakers fear an influx would harm the Pakistani film industry.

"We have devised a mechanism for allowing the import of Indian films for a period of one year, after which the arrangements can be reviewed," Senator Zafar Iqbal Chaudhry, who headed of the parliamentary committee, was quoted as saying.

He, however, said the government would have to clear the proposal to allow the import and release of Indian films.

Though details are unclear, reports suggest that the import of a dozen Indian films will be allowed against the export of an equal number of Pakistani films to India. It is not clear also whether the Indian government would agree to such a proposal.

India's Hindi-language film industry, which includes Bombay's Bollywood movies, is the world's largest by viewership.

ANI