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Ever since that fateful night in 1947, Indians and Pakistanis have shared a love-hate relationship with each other, and <keyword id="143" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Bollywood">Bollywood</keyword> films have got a lot to do with that. 
 
Be it showing what’s common in the neighbouring countries or showing the tension at the border areas, Bollywood films have played a major role in shaping the mentalities of both Indians and Pakistanis, and with the recent success of Pakistani dramas in India, there is a newfound love for Pakistani culture and art that we never knew we had. 
 
On the eve of Pakistan’s Independence Day, and keeping up with our Independence Day special stories, here are some Bollywood movies that explored the bitter-sweet relationship between India and Pakistan, different from the usual war-based movies.

#Independence Day Special: 5 Bollywood movies that explore India-Pakistan ties

Now that the poll fever has waned and the <keyword id="6354312" type="CITY" weightage="40" keywordseo="IPL">IPL</keyword> is done with, <keyword id="143" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="Bollywood">Bollywood</keyword> is back with a bang as the biggest entertainer of all. The first Friday of June has already witnessed a <keyword id="18564" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="blockbuster">blockbuster</keyword> in the making as Akshay Kumar-Sonakshi Sinha-starrer Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty has raked in the crores in the first four days and is fast nearing the Rs 50 crore mark. 
 The power-packed <keyword id="582722" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="action-thriller">action thriller</keyword>, written and directed by <keyword id="39359" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="a-r-murugadoss">A.R. Murugadoss</keyword> (he made his Hindi debut with Aamir Khan-starrer <keyword id="17231" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Ghajini">Ghajini</keyword>), netted Rs 41.32 crore at the <keyword id="827271" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Domestic-Box-Office">domestic box office</keyword> after the first three days (trade figure stands at 40.23 crore) while first Monday collections amounted to Rs 8.02 crore, as per <keyword id="6356809" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="producer">producer</keyword> figure. The film also had a decent collection abroad during the debut weekend, grossing around Rs 10.61 crore. Holiday was released in more than 41 countries and has already surpassed the lifetime collections of <keyword id="1020628" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="Ragini-MMS-2">Ragini MMS 2</keyword> (Rs 47 crore) and Amitabh Bachchan-starrer Bhoothnath Returns (Rs 39 crore). 
 
Holiday netted Rs 12.18 crore on the opening Friday, making it the fourth highest opening day grosser of 2014, behind <keyword id="6354583" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Salman-Khan">Salman Khan</keyword>’s <keyword id="6593120" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Jai-Ho">Jai Ho</keyword> (Rs 17.55 crore), Ranveer Singh-Arjun Kapoor starrer Gunday (Rs 16.12 crore) and <keyword id="114453" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Arjun-Kapoor">Arjun Kapoor</keyword>’s 2 States (Rs 12.42 crore). The movie also witnessed the third highest opening weekend of the current year – behind Jai Ho (Rs 58.07 crore) and Gunday (Rs 40.26 crore). 
 Other two releases of the week include <keyword id="1598621" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Nitin-Kakkar">Nitin Kakkar</keyword>’s critically acclaimed movie <keyword id="1600793" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Filmistaan">Filmistaan</keyword> and <keyword id="2151778" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Nisha-Pahuja">Nisha Pahuja</keyword>’s award-winning documentary <keyword id="2109617" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="The-World-Before-Her">The World Before Her</keyword>. In spite of good reviews, Filmistaan fared poorly due to lack of promotion and star value, netting Rs 3.19 crore at home after Day IV. However, the movie netted better on first Monday, earning around Rs 54 lakh, compared to Rs 51 lakh on the opening Friday. We don’t have the numbers yet for Pahuja’s documentary. 
 
Coming back to <keyword id="2113212" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Holiday-A-Soldier-Is-Never-Off-Duty">Holiday: A Soldier Is Never Off Duty</keyword>, the Akshay-Sonakshi starrer has many a surprise in store, thanks to the twists and turns of a complex plot that interweaves some slick action and offbeat romance with serious issues like brutal terrorism and deep-rooted corruption. This one is a remake of the <keyword id="2317374" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Tamil-action-thriller">Tamil action thriller</keyword> <keyword id="916764" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Thuppakki">Thuppakki</keyword> (starring Vijay and <keyword id="38180" type="PERSON" weightage="80" keywordseo="Kajal-Aggarwal">Kajal Aggarwal</keyword>) that won both critical acclaim and <keyword id="1996041" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Box-office-success">box office success</keyword>. The Hindi remake is equally enthralling, if not more, and Akki (<keyword id="2317380" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Captain-Virat-Bakshy">Captain Virat Bakshy</keyword>) rules the flick till the end. While the soldier on leave springs into action to save Mumbai from the clutches of the terrorists, his lady love <keyword id="1579477" type="ENTERTAINMENT" weightage="100" keywordseo="Saiba">Saiba</keyword> (<keyword id="62210" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sonakshi-Sinha">Sonakshi Sinha</keyword>) turns out to be a <keyword id="340167" type="POSITION" weightage="100" keywordseo="professional-boxer">professional boxer</keyword> and not the traditional Indian girl he has assumed her to be. Overall, an enjoyable movie in spite of some logical fault lines in the story. 
 
 
 
In sharp contrast, Nitin Kakkar’s directorial debut Filmistaan once again harks back to the untold realities of <keyword id="136188" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Indo-Pak-relations">Indo-Pak relations</keyword>, seen through the eyes of <keyword id="609" type="PERSON" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sunny">Sunny</keyword> (<keyword id="1600789" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Sharib-Hashmi">Sharib Hashmi</keyword>), a <keyword id="2317356" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="small-time-actor-turned-documentary-director">small-time-actor-turned-documentary-director</keyword>. His <keyword id="6374782" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="80" keywordseo="journey">journey</keyword> through ‘enemy’ territory and the days spent there in captivity gradually unveil the human and cultural bonding that never fails to exist in spite of the political divide. 
 
Finally, we come to Nisha Pahuja’s The World Before Her – a 90-minute documentary that follows the contrasting lifestyles of two <keyword id="624" type="ORGANIZATION" weightage="80" keywordseo="Women">women</keyword> in search of empowerment. And in doing so, Pahuja reveals some disturbing questions that are bound to haunt today’s women. As <keyword id="210839" type="POSITION" weightage="60" keywordseo="Critic">critic</keyword> Shubhra Gupta so rightly points out: There are not just two Indias... There are many more. What choices do the girls who live in those other Indias have? Do they have any at all? 
 
Images: Indiatimes

Box Office: Akki’s Holiday A Blockbuster; Filmistaan Falters In Spite Of
Accolades

They say there is no business like the <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Mid-year-assessment-It-was-a-roller-coaster-ride-for-Bollywood/articleshow/47830513.cms">movie business</a> and indeed every Friday we have at least one new movie tossed at the audience. And by Sunday, we get to know whether the movie will be a hit, a miss or just an average fare. 
	 
	So far, 2015 has been quite an interesting year from Bollywood’s perspective. Why I say so is because on one hand we had magnanimous opus like Baahubali achieving great success and on the other, there were small budget movies such as <a href="http://www.businessinsider.in/Relive-the-90s-with-Dum-Laga-Ke-Haisha/articleshow/46395043.cms">Dum Laga Ke Haisha</a>, NH10 and Badlapur, that managed to swoon the audiences and the critics. 
	 
	Sequels like Tanu Weds Manu Returns managed to outshine their last offering and then we had Piku that conveyed human emotions in a brilliant way and also got the cash register ringing.
<table border="1" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0">
	<tbody>
		<tr>
			<td>
				Movie Name</td>
			<td>
				Budget</td>
			<td>
				Earning</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dum_Laga_Ke_Haisha">Dum Laga Ke Haisa</a></td>
			<td>
				Rs 15 Crore</td>
			<td>
				Rs 100 Crore</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Badlapur_(film)">Badlapur</a></td>
			<td>
				Rs 25 Crore</td>
			<td>
				Rs 119 Crore</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NH10">NH10</a></td>
			<td>
				Rs 13 Crore</td>
			<td>
				Rs 32.1 Crore</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tanu_Weds_Manu_Returns">Tanu Weds Manu Returns</a></td>
			<td>
				Rs 30 Crore</td>
			<td>
				Rs 252 Crore</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piku">Piku</a></td>
			<td>
				Rs 42 Crore</td>
			<td>
				Rs 141 Crore</td>
		</tr>
		<tr>
			<td>
				<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Baahubali:_The_Beginning">Bahubali: The Beginning</a></td>
			<td>
				Rs 120 Crore</td>
			<td>
				Rs 600 Crore</td>
		</tr>
	</tbody>
</table>

	So should we conclude that the era for clichéd, formula-based movies, is coming to an end? 
	 
	Not really as in 2015, we had movies like Hero, Tevar, Roy, etc that banked on the predictable story line to woo the audience and managed to garner mixed acceptance. 
	 
	But, if we see a larger picture, new concepts with small budgets and strong script are doing well. 
	 
	The success of Dum Laga Ke Haisha, Tanu Weds Manu Returns and last year’s Queen hinted that directors and storytellers should venture with newer concepts to engage and entertain the audience. 
	 
	To this trend, Komal Nahata, trade analyst, said, “I would not like to say that there is a trend shift that is happening. From the past three-four years we have seen some small budget movies doing pretty well. The market for such films is also growing. Earlier they used to do well only in certain multiplexes, then it grew to few cities but now in pockets pan-India, they do well.” 
	 
	While it is true that there are quite a few experimental movies that are being screened, but multiple sources in the industry, on conditions of anonymity, told us that about 60-75% of the movies that go on the floor never see light of the day. 
	 
	 
	 
	A lot of these movies are actually finished products but fail to make it to cinema halls as the distributors are unwilling to buy them or the producer has lost confidence in the movie and does not want to spend more money in promoting them. 
	 
	Despite of the fact that some movies do well in global markets, they are not released in India. The movies that have found place in this list include Peddlers, The Coffin Maker, Dekh Indian Circus, etc. 
	 
	Mind you, not all of these shelved movies have lesser known faces as their star cast. The Coffin Maker stars Naseeruddin Shah while Nawazuddin Siddiqui features in Dekh India Circus. 
	 
	Siddiqui said, “It is rather unfortunate that a lot of content-oriented movies in India are still struggling to get funding in the country and there are a few completed projects that are not able to secure a release. Not just Dekh India Circus, there are a few more of my movies that are currently not released and I have started taking more commercial projects since last year with the hope that if I become a little more known face, it will be easier for my directors and producers to get the pending projects released.” 
	 
	And off-beat movies that managed to secure a release, had to face a tough time in the process. 
	 
	For instance, Shonali Bose’s “Margarita With a Straw”, which has Kalki Koechlin as the leading lady, garnered accolades at Toronto International Film Festival and Koechlin also bagged the best actress award at The Tallinn Black Nights Film Festival in 2014. After much delays, the movie finally released to Indian audience on April 17, 2015.
<div style="page-break-after: always;">
	&#xa0;</div>

	Unfortunately, not all the movies are lucky as this one. There are quite a few of these Bollywoods' lost children that fail to get a screen space in the midst of high-brow glitterati. 
	 
	I managed to see the world premiere of one such movie in the very heart of London’s film world. Being a movie enthusiast, I had heard a lot about London’s prestigious Raindance Film Festival and it was quite a coincidence that I managed to see a Bollywood movie listed as an `official selection’. 
	 
	Curiosity got the better of me and I reached just in the nick of the time to see ‘Peter Gaya Kaam Se’ (PGKS) (aka The Goa Run). The super plush Vue Cinema in Piccadilly Circus was almost full and the first theatrical screening for this lost Bollywood baby was a complete entertainment package. 
	 
	John Owens' action packed adventure tells the story of a motorcycle taxi driver from Goa (Rajeev Khandelwal) who falls in love with Mira, a beautiful and beguiling drug smuggler from London (Lekha Washington). This out and out commercial flick was originally produced by UTV Spotboys but got shelved and largely forgotten during Disneys' protracted takeover of the company. 
	 
	Director John Owen, who has worked in India for many years as one of MTV and Channel [V]’s head honchos, had penned and directed this story. The movie was shot extensively in Goa and took about a month to complete. It turns out that, the Raindance founder Elliot Grove took a personal interest in the film. 
	 
	 
	 
	Says Owen, "Raindance loved the film and were determined to host the world premiere, especially as I am the first Brit to direct a Bollywood film. A fact that makes me very proud. So when Disney finally gave permission I flew over to Mumbai, finished the sound work we had pending at my cost, did the subtitles myself and had a high end digital print made. The quality of the screening was just superb.” 
	 
	Raindance is in its 22nd year and has become one of the world’s premiere film festivals and very highly thought of by the industry itself. 
	 
	Owen adds, "We didn’t have any money to promote the screening so it was all word of mouth and the buzz of social media. People came from all over the country, it was amazing." 
	 
	Ironically, on the very same weekend Disney's Khoobsurat was premiering in the UK and I could see a theatre just across the street in London's Leicester Square showing it. 
	 
	When I put this point across to Owen, he chuckled and said, "It's funny because Shashanka Ghosh and I have been friends since our MTV days. I stayed with him when I was over in Mumbai fixing up the film in September and we joked about him being Disney's loved and me being their unloved child.” 
	 
	Given the response this movie managed to get sans any promotion and that too in London, I was curious to know what plans Owen or Disney have for this movie. Owen shared that some high-flying industry folks were amongst the excited audience and they saw real potential for the film in the UK and the US. 
	 
	No wonder, UK distributors are showing interest in the movie. Even in India PGKS is well-liked amongst industry insiders who were given personal screenings by the director. After all, the film does come with some pedigree. Anurag and Abhinav Kashyap were `creative producers' and UTV’s top producer on the job at the time was the visionary Vikas Bahl (who has given movies such as Chiller Party and Queen). So, what happens now to Peter Gaya Kaam Se? 
	 
	Owen picks on a philosophical note and shares, "It's all about love and timing. PGKS came along at the wrong time in the marriage of UTV and Disney. So, it’s the unwanted child. A bit like how Danny Boyle’s Slumdog Millionaire was for Warner Brothers. Warners’ just didn’t like the film so they let Danny go off and find a new home with Fox Searchlight. Fox loved the film, supported Danny, and made Slumdog a massive box office success. The film industry does not work like a science. Sometimes it comes down to personal taste. When I get depressed about the whole thing I think of Danny and Slumdog and get inspired all over again.” 
	 
	While Owen never had the resources or connections to find buyers for PGKS, on its own, he is looking to crowd funding and other ways to get this movie to be released.
<div style="page-break-after: always;">
	&#xa0;</div>

	It is noteworthy, that UTV Spotboys was the pioneer of small budget, content-oriented movies in India. 
	 
	Khosla Ka Ghosla was one of the first movies in this genre that was produced under UTV Motion Pictures. Later between 2008 and 2009, under the UTV Spotboys banner, they released movies such as Dev D, Oye Lucky Lucky Oye, Welcome to Sajjanpur, A Wednesday, Mumbai Meri Jaan and Aamir. All these movies managed to get a fair share of success at the ticket window. 
	 
	 
	 
	Another coincidence worth pointing out in the case of Peter Gaya Kaam Se is that it went on floor almost at the same time as Paan Singh Tomar. 
	 
	The latter, too, was produced by UTV Spotboys and managed to get a release on March 2, 2012, almost four years after it was complete and it managed to be a box office success largely due to word of mouth. 
	 
	The bigger coincidence is that Paan Singh Tomar, too, was premiered at the 2010 British Film Institute London, almost two years before its domestic release. 
	 
	We spoke to Rucha Pathak on why it was such a challenge to make a movie like Paan Singh Tomar. 
	 
	Pathak was the associate producer of Paan Singh Tomar and Sr. Creative Director at UTV (now Disney India) when this film was being made and is now Head of Creative &amp; Development at Fox Star Studios. 
	 
	“The main challenges we faced while trying to make Paan Singh Tomar was that because it was probably the first time a film like this was being made people did not realise what it was going to be like and it was therefore completely against the trend in those days,” she said. 
	 
	Also we could not help ask her if is it really possible to get any small budget movie out there in the market to which she answered, “It is difficult to release small and medium budget films these days but not impossible. I think if one can find the right marketing budget and the right target audience that you want to reach out to, then it’s possible to release a film. It is really critical these days to make films at the right budget and market films at the right budget. Once that is under control then I believe one can get a film out to reach an audience that it is meant for.” 
	 
	While Pathak emphasised on the budgeting bit, Nahata feels, “Exhibition or the release strategy is very detrimental to the business of content driven movies. The moment there is a big movie coming in, they are thrown out. Most such movies need time for the word of mouth to pick up.” 
	 
	
<a href="https://infogr.am/screens_count_on_day_of_release" target="_blank">Screens count on day of release</a> | <a href="https://infogr.am" target="_blank">Create infographics</a> 
The distributors today are looking for instant gratification. They would expect the movie to have 80 to 90% occupancy rates for its release Friday itself. If the movie does not show results by Sunday, then on Monday it is thrown out. This was not really the case earlier. I still remember when Maine Pyaar Kiya released, it had just one cinema hall in Mumbai, later when the word of mouth spread, the movie was given more space and it was a such a huge hit,” shares Ami Shah, co-founder and creative director of IntelliAssist (a company that has handled social media mandates for Bollywood movies). 
 
Indeed, distribution is one big challenge for small budget, content-oriented movies in India. However, Director Onir mentions that it is not the only one. Just to give you a perspective, Onir is an Indian film maker, who has churned out movies such as 'I AM, My Brother Nikhil’ and Bas Ek Pal. He had crowd funded his movie I AM, which released in 2010 and also bagged the national award for the same. 
 
Ask him if given a chance would he again crowd fund a movie or give any other director struggling for funds the same suggestion and he replies, “No it is one thing to make a movie and altogether another to get it to the cinema. Marketing a movie, especially a content-oriented one is a hard job.” 
 
I would agree with his point that it is tough nut to market a movie that does not have bankable stars. Like, Filmistaan, the 2014 movie was an endearing tale of wannabe actor, who gets kidnapped by terrorists and held in the home of a Pakistani who deals in pirated Hindi films. The tale captures how both of them bond over movies. 
 
The trailers of the movie looked very bland and I was not sure whether I would want to waste time watching this movie. Fortunately for me, one of my friend dragged me to this movie and I would admit that it was actually one of the best movies of 2014 that I managed to see and yes it did manage to win a national award as well. 
 
The cost of marketing in itself is quite high as well and it is not just important to buy ad space but also to connect right with your target audience. This is perhaps one lesson that the movie Queen managed to do well and of course the word of mouth helped it consolidate its position over a period of time. 
 
Onir also mentions that the government will have to play a greater role to help protect content-driven cinema in India. “The approach that our government takes is that they treat Bollywood as a business and not art. However, it will have to realize that like any art even movies need a bit of support”. In his opinion, there could be plenty of other avenues where movies can be showcased. 
 
Now talking about television, we have 24-hour movie channels that end up playing same movie almost every weekend. Most TV channels pick up movies that have done well on the box office, so that they don’t have to do much in terms of marketing and yet they can have good TRPs on their so-called “World Television Premiere”. It is a possibility that some of these movies that are left biting the dust, some might be ideal for the TV watching audience but so far these gems are not able to get any real support for this medium too. 
 
With the coming of 4G, it is expected that some of these movies might get a fresh lease of hope. There are producers and directors that are looking for alternative channels to monetize their movies via online ads and pay per view models. Currently none of them has been able to come out with a full proof plan and hence some great marvels of Hindi cinema continue to rot in their graves, while the others in the hands of resilient makers are fighting it hard to get to their audiences.

You Searched For "Filmistaan" and got 3 results

#Independence Day Special: 5 Bollywood movies that explore India-Pakistan ties

Nandini Sharma

Box Office: Akki’s Holiday A Blockbuster; Filmistaan Falters In Spite Of Accolades

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Meaningful Content in Indian Cinema: A Lost Battle?

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