According to senior writer Aslam Khan, more than 800 Pashto films have been produced till now. Yusuf Khan and Sherbano was the first super hit film of Pashto cinema, released in 1970. The time was considered the “golden era of Pashto film industry”.
During this time, cinema was considered the most effective source of cultural communication and entertainment.
In the past there were 60 cinemas in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa with 16 in Peshawar only, but now the city only has four operational cinemas while some have turned into shopping plazas. In the 1980s, people from remote areas used to visit cities like Peshawar, Mardan and Mingora to watch films, movies were made on almost every subject and people loved to watch films in cinemas.
Manager of The Picture House cinema, Waseem, said, “Standard of Pashto films has been downgraded due to which people try to avoid watching films in cinemas. After 2003 Pashto films seemed to have lost their fans because of gun culture in movies, vulgarity, lack of good writers and a wave of extremism after 2008.”
Waseem added, “There is no proper check and balance on films and financial support so in this case it is impossible for Pashto cinema to revive and grow like Lollywood.”
Pashto literature scholar, researcher and head of a research centre ‘Mafkura’, Hayat Roghani, said that in early 1980s most of the wealthy people in Pakistan, particularly in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, invested in Pashto cinema to whiten their black money.
“Nowadays maximum actresses acting in Pashto films are not Pashtuns — they are from Lollywood and Punjab which is one of the core reasons of Pashto film industry’s decline.”
Nevertheless, there seemed a great potential in Pashto cinema which could bring a bright future for the Pashto film industry. Some artists are continuously working for better reforms in the Pashto film industry to bring Zeenath back to glory.
