That’s right. The most anticipated Pakistani film of 2019 has created history before its release.
The mega starrer and potential blockbuster “The Legend of Maula Jatt” will get to see a day-and-date release in China, the biggest movie market in the world. This means that the movie will see a theatrical opening in China, falling on the same day as in Pakistan. That makes for another feather in the cap for Bilal Lashari directorial.
This will be the first ever film from the south asia that will see same date release in China with its domestic release in Pakistan. The news is a big one not just for Maula Jatt alone but for the whole film trade as it would herald a new era for Pakistani films as far as their exposure and business in international market is concerned.
Earlier a negligible number of films, that too hailing form big Hollywood studios were able to achieve such mainstream release in China. As far as subcontinent cinema is concerned, only the most commercially successful Bollywood films namely “Dangal”, “Secret Superstar”, “Hindi Medium” and “Bahubali” etc were released in China but that was months or a year after their domestic and international screenings. As for Hollywood, only a handful of movies like, “Spider-Man”, “Captain America” and “X Men” were able to secure the Chinese theatrical release overlapping with US domestic and worldwide release.
All this is courtesy the fact that China has a limited quota for foreign films to be released each year where annually a few films are selected amongst countless global productions, after tight scrutinization by the Chinese regulatory authorities is carried out.
The Chinese release of “The Legend of Maula Jatt” will prove to be breakthrough for Pakistani film industry providing it a much needed global presence and possible recognition. An industry in its nascent stage,managing to achieve such a benchmark is itself a nig milestone if we compare this to other big film producing nations like India, Iran,Turkey and even USA.
Set to release on Eid ul Fitr next year, we hope the film lives up to the expectations and wish all the very best to team behind “The legend of Maula Jutt”.
