Salakhain still the front runner

At the local box office Salakhein continues its success spree and is attracting a heavy rush on Eid in cinemas all over Punjab. There were a total of 7 new film releases on Eidul Fitr .

Two of them were Punjabi movies Wehshi Haseena starring Shaan and Saima and Billo Ghantagharia also starring Shaan and Saima (directed by Sangeeta).

The sole Urdu film was Syed Noor's Hum Aik Hain again starring Shaan and Saima. The remeianing three films were from Hollywood - The Day After Tomorrow, Van Helsing and Desperado 2.

Beside these new releases, Rashid Khawaja's Salakhain (produced by Khalil Rana starring Ahmad Butt and Zara Sheikh) was in continuation all over Punjab and Frontier provinces. A survey of the cine-trends show that on the first day of Eid, Wehshi Haseena was the front-runner and Salakhain followed with a big margin. On the second day, Salakhain became number one in terms of business and attracted cine-lovers to all theatres in Lahore screening the film. Some 35 percent of Salakhein's viewers were women, a record.

In addition to Urdu, Punjabi and English movies, 6 Pushto films were released in Peshawar. It is of great academic interest that Syed Noor's film Hum Aik Hein and Wehshi Hasina opened with Rs 100 ticket price but in the very second show, the price of Hum Aik Hein dropped to Rs75. Salakhain and Wehshi Haseena are both running at Rs 100 which also proves that ticket price was not a factor considered by cinegoers.

Indian actor Raj Babbar who was here in Lahore to attend the premiere of Salakehin had said that he was more than satisfied to see the film industries of the two countries at par with each other.

The film's music also marked a a significant improvement in the standards of Lollywood film music and one of its songs was sung by Indian singer Sonu Nigam.