Salman Khan’s Pakistani fans may not get to watch his new film ‘Tubelight’ in theaters. Pakistani distributors want to promote their local films during Eid. From now on, they are planning to drop the screening of big-budget Bollywood films during Muslim holidays. Pakistani film distributors are planning to take a tough action if their government does not do anything to stop Tubelight’s release on Eid. Two big-budget Pakistani films are releasing in this festive season. Tubelight has Salman Khan and if it releases on Eid, common Pakistani cinema goers are sure to opt for it instead of a local film.
Shor Sharaba is a big budget Pakistani film releasing on Eid. But Sohail Khan, the producer of Shor Sharaba will not release his film alongside ‘Tubelight’. He is supporting the distributors who do not want to release ‘Tubelight‘ in Pakistan. Bollywood films have a huge fan following in Pakistan. Pakistani government once banned the release of Bollywood films in local theaters. But fans were still watching Bollywood films because of pirated DVDs. As a result, the Pakistan government has withdrawn the ban on the release of Indian films in Pakistani theaters.
Pakistani film industry is still struggling because of the competition from Bollywood films. Pakistani films do not have huge budgets like Bollywood films. Distributors are now taking a drastic step to save the local film industry.
Salman Khan and Kabir Khan co-produced ‘Tubelight’. The news of their film not releasing in Pakistani cinema halls will surely not please them. But Salman will not lose any money as his films will release in record number of theaters worldwide.
Time will tell if ‘Tubelight’ will release in Pakistan on Eid or not. It is also not clear if Pakistani distributors are planning to release this film at a later date. Eid is the main Pakistani holiday. The biggest Pakistani films release during Eid.
Pakistani distributors believe that local films would do better business in the absence of the competition from Bollywood movies.