Pakistani media’s obsession of Indian TV and movies

This is one of the favorite topic amongst the Pakistani TV anchors.  They have pride – which they should, everyone has – for their work and country; and are against India and Indian content on media.  They view it as a cultural invasion.  And in this program, this popular Pakistani anchor creates the vision of a conspiracy going on as to how and why the Indian content is brought in.

Honestly, I was confused watching it.  From threatening to tax to showing “liberal” values of allowing the Indian content in to saying how advanced Indian technology is to saying how useless the content is etc.; the people in this discussion go everywhere.

A few points for Pakistanis, if they happen to read this:

• The dichotomy between Large budget movie and low Budget movie is just like what a Pakistani producer faces.  Yet, “Shirin Farhad ki to Nikal Padi’ or “Ferrari ki Sawari” comes out and does well.  Not all the Indian movies are big budget.  Most actually are low budget.  And it is not just Bollywood, but local regional movies as well, who compete against Bollywood – like Bhojpuri, Manipuri etc and do well.  Of course, the Southern regional cinema is way ahead and blockbuster in its own right.

• Loving media cannot be controlled by laws.  You cannot stop people in India from liking Adnan Sami or Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, if they do good work.  Similarly, it is foolish to assume that any actor in the sub continent can match someone like Amitabh Bachchan and his charisma.  So, this talk of “letting local cinema” grow and sustain by taxing the Indian programming is just juvenile.  It is jingoism at best.

India is the “US of the sub-continent” and no one can deny it.  Pakistanis in their national pride can rile against India as much as they want, but give anyone one chance to come and perform here, they will jump at the option.  So, lets stop pretending and work well with each other when we do.