In 1970’s, a Balochi film titled ‘Hammal-o-Mahganj’ was made. It was directed by Anwar Iqbal and was the first-ever Balochi film of Pakistan. The film, however, couldn’t make its way to cinemas. Decades later, news about films like ‘Doda’ and ‘Balochabad’ surfaced, followed by a complete lull from makers. But the things are about to change with “Doda” set to be the first-ever Balochi film to release in cinemas. Film will be distributed by Metro Live Movies, the same distribution company that will release ‘Javed Iqbal: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer’.
Director of the movie Adil Bizengo, is elated on the development. Talking to PakistaniCinema.net, he says, “I am thankful to all the artists and my crew members who worked with me on this project and had a faith on me. Without their support, I would not have been able to make it happen. I would also thank my distributor who is taking this initiative. I hope that the release of our film will encourage the regional cinema and I am hopeful that people will support our effort and will watch this film in cinema.”
As an acknowledgement film will be dedicated to Anwar Iqbal the director of the first Balochi film in 1973. Interestingly, Anwar is also a part of this film.
The film is currently in the post-production phase and the distributor hope to release it sometime between Eid-ul-Fitr and Eid-ul-Azha. Besides the Balochi version, an Urdu-dubbed version of film will also be released in multiplexes to cater the nationwide audiences.
We also contacted the distributor of this film, Umar Khitab Khan, who deserves appreciation for taking this initiative. “Our intention was only to support regional cinema. You see, world-wide and specifically in our neighbouring country India, the regional cinema is equally important for cinema industry. There’s a parallel market for Tamil, Tellugu, Marathi and Punjabi films. Similarly we also need to revive our regional cinema. In past, we used to make films in Pashto, Sindhi and Punjabi and there was in fact a time when Punjabi cinema overtook the Urdu cinema. We cannot undermine the importance of regional films. And now we hope that this effort of ours will change the course of regional cinema in coming days”, said Khitab.
There is this recent wave of revival of regional cinema that one can observe. Apart from this Balochi film, Yasir Nawaz recently announced his next project which is a Sindhi film. Director Abu Aleeha is also working on a Punjabi script. We at PakistaniCinema.net, wish all these makers of regional films good luck and hope that regional films will soon be able to help cinema industry thrive.
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