After a massive clash on Eid-Ul-Azha between Jawani Phir Nahi Ani 2, Parwaz Hai Junoon and Load Wedding, it seems everything is not right – at least not for the Nabeel Qureshi directorial.
Taking to Twitter, the filmmaker has been quite vocal about how the Fahad Mustafa and Mehwish Hayat starrer has been given bad screening times across Pakistan, whereas the other two films are getting ‘unfair’ advantages.
“We were only given a 15-20% allocation in the cinemas. How is that fair? Isn’t this the exhibitors’ responsibility to ensure that there’s equality within the cinemas?†Nabeel told Something Haute.
The director also clarified that while other films were produced by networks, in their case they only worked under the GEO banner for a media partnership.
“Let me make it clear, GEO is my media partner, not my producer or distributor, whereas ARY and HUM have investments set in PHJ and JPNA 2,†he said. “It’s disheartening because we’re independent filmmakers and we don’t go to big networks to produce our films.â€
just got this ! Only one show of #loadwedding which is also at 10:30 am in the morning, what is this ??? #cinegold bahria pindi, this is pure cinema mafia which is trying to push us down !
They are deying the word of mouth !!! Death independent filmmakers in pakistan! pic.twitter.com/V1aXDkpWhm— Nabeel Qureshi (@nabeelqureshi) August 27, 2018
Something Haute also got in touch with Nadeem Mandviwala to give his perspective on the discrepancy between screen allocations.
“The main reason will always remain the demand of films from the public, however for the 5 Eid holidays, cinemas could have balanced the allocation of their shows more fairly,” Nadeem explained. “Still, it remains the prerogative of the cinemas how to manage their own sites.”
While the exhibitor felt that it’s the public demand that plays the largest role in adding or subtracting screen allocations, Nabeel felt that his film has not done bad business for it to not get enough shows.
“I want to question all the exhibitors; did the cinemas go empty during Load Wedding? Despite the horrid allocations given to my film, it remained at 80-90 percent occupancy,” he said. “What’s the reason to give my films such hours? My film is being sabotaged. Even Teefa, which released a month ago still has 6 shows; is this fair play?”
Although the issue remains to be addressed largely by other exhibitors and filmmakers, it does open up the floor to the issue of multi-releases and fair play from within the industry or lack thereof.
