Not many people are aware of the internal struggle taking place between two of the biggest films of the year: Punjab Nahi Jaungi and Na Maloom Afraad 2. Up until now, the two films were competing in a friendly manner. For instance, NMA2’s team would try to steal PNJ”s limelight by releasing content on the same day as them; NMA2’s producer Fizza Meerza went on record to say that yes, they were competing with PNJ in a healthy way. “We were the first ones to do a trailer launch at the Nueplex and then the PNJ team did something similar after us so yea, we’re all competing. But this competition is good!”
However, things turned a little sour when people noticed that Nueplex  and Cinepax cinemas weren’t playing PNJ trailers as often as NMA2‘s. Finally, the list of shows for both films was released and people further realized that NMA2 was definitely getting more shows than PNJ.
The reason behind that has not officially been announced, though industry insiders were crediting the discrepancy to Nueplex’s vested interest in the commercial success of NMA2. Nabeel Qureshi’s film has been co-produced by Excellency Films, a production company owned by Cinepax, Nueplex and CineStar cinemas.
Something Haute spoke to the director of PNJ to see what he felt about the disparity. “Film industry is new, the cinema industry is new. I think it will take some time for professionalism to come through. But we are this point that we cannot bear the loss. There are many highly anticipated films coming up and they all should get equal shows. Both films should get a fair chance. And for the public. The choice should be theirs,” he responded.
We wondered whether the director was worried about the impact of this discrepancy on the box office collections of PNJ. Â “I’m worried about the outcome. I think that if there are lesser shows, no matter how good the film is, it won’t be able to generate a decent revenue. But we are hoping that they will consider that. Let’s see what people think of the film.”
The film will hit cinemas on the first day of Eid-ul-Azha.
