Pakistan Fashion Industry’s Love for Bollywood

Bollywood film Race II was premiered at a local cinema in Lahore few days back. The premier show was obviously expected to be a grand event with Geo Films distributing the movie in Pakistan, and the attendance by a number of Pakistan’s fashion celebs including, TV actress and host Natasha, super model Mehreen Syed, photographers Ather and Shahzad, designer Qasim Yaar Tiwana, and many others from the showbiz world added a lot to the extravagant feeling of the occasion. Everyone seemed full of praise for the movie and the screenplay, story, production quality, music, directorial skills and everything was heavily admired. Mehreen Syed even went on saying that the movie has the potential of crossing the 300 crore digit at box office. The production quality of Race II is of no concern to me, the actual concerning point is that our fashion celebrities are so much impressed and awe-inspired by the Indian productions that they could not only spare time for a 3-hour show but also got to be much exited regarding the event. Their after-show comments to media were a clear evidence. On the contrary, Pakistani movies are constantly failing to catch up the attention of our fashion industry, not to talk about any collaboration. There are just some exceptions to this misery but those exceptions too are rarely found. The last time one would have experienced a moment on somewhat the same lines for a local film was when Reema Khan released the title and promotional song of her last directorial film, Love Mein Ghum. The song; titled the same as the movie name, was voiced by Ali Zafar, whereas a number of celebrities from all over the showbiz corps of Pakistan were gathered by Reema to perform on it. That really was a milestone achievement by the local film industry. Shoaib Mansoor’s Bol too, had a beautiful premiere in Cinestar Lahore where many showbiz celebrities including the film cast made their presence felt. The event was again arranged by Geo Films. It is quite unfortunate to see the fashion and film industries moving separate ways in Pakistan, especially in the troubled times on the latter. Contrary to this, fashion industries elsewhere are considered a major support to films and their promotions, especially when it comes to glamourizing such movie premiers. Although a formal support from the fashion fraternity of the country won’t change much to the fate of the local films, but it is at least good to see one being the strength of the other. An important question here is that why there is a gap existing at the first place? And the obvious answer lies in the definition of ‘professionalism’ to both the groups. The fact that the two industries are mainly dominated by two very different classes of people also creates a big gap. The solution is in the hands of no one but the people from film industry, and they are very well aware of what needs to be done.