Time was when there were over two thousand cinema houses in the country which ran Bollywood and Lollywood movies side by side .Now this number has shrunk to less than one hundred. The rot in cinema culture seem to have set in after the government banned screening of Indian movies in the country following 1965 Indo Pak war How correct was the prognosis of some film actors then when this ban was being laid that quality of our films would nose dive with the absence of competition from Indian films in the market .There is no gainsaying the fact that it was the period between 1948 and 1965 when best Pakistani films were churned out by Lollywood like Waada, Gumnam , Qatil, Anarkali, Intezar, Kirtar Singh ,Jhoomar, Chingari, Moseeqar, Chanway, HeerRanjha, Sarfarosh and Baaji to mention a few the likes of which were not produced after 1965.
With the fall in the standard of our films,the cinegoers stopped going to cinema houses thus forcing their owners to sell off them or convert them into wedding halls or markets .one of the reasons for decline of cinema culture in the country was introduction of VCR also in the market and smuggled videos of new Indian movies which the film loving people preferred to see on VCR while sitting in their houses instead of sitting in the cinema houses.Lately,an half hearted attempt has been made in the country by some film producers and government to revive the cinema culture with the construction of cineplexes in some cities but the ticket price of seeing films in cineplexes is much higher than it used to be in old cinema houses which the pockets of average cinegoers cannot afford so Cineplex culture has not been able to strike roots in the country as yet.
