Pakistani producer, director and entrepreneur Sajjad Gul, who is also the owner of Evernew Studios in Lahore - the first studio to open in Pakistan following independence - believes that Pakistani cinema would revive in the next 10 years.
"In the next 10 years we can expect more than 300 new screens and once this happens, box office will revive - number of films produced and released will also increase," The Express Tribune quoted Gul, as saying.
Gul also believes that one thing that has triggered the cinema culture in Pakistan is the availability of films from Bollywood, which is also thriving.u00a0Sajjad Gul has closely been linked to the development and growth of Pakistani cinema and has kept a vigilant eye on it.
"There are a series of events that can point to the state of affairs we are in today," said Gul, whose father opened Evernew Studios and Firdous Cinema, Pakistan's first cinema.
He feels that although the studio withstood many years, it also unfortunately, depicts the inability of the film industry to innovate and evolve in terms of technology and infrastructure.
"We realised that in the early '80s in Ziaul Haq's era, cinemas were going down and the global film industry was also in decline due to all the technology that was coming out - televisions and satellites," Gul said.
However, he believes that within the next 10 years, the trend will pick up again and Lollywood would take control as a prevalent film industry.
"New screens (theatres) are being constructed in Pakistan, so people who didn't get the chance of watching films on big screens will now have the opportunity to. Cinema-going was a habit we had, which we lost, specifically those people who were on average incomes," he further said.
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