Momi returns from Bollywood

LAHORE : After decades of mutual mistrust, the moviemakers and film stars of Pakistan and India are interacting, buoyed by a belief that South Asia's most popular medium can propel the fledgling peace process.

Cross-fertilisation between the Lahore-based film industry now dubbed Lollywood and the Bombay-based Bollywood has begun, replacing the old politics of envy.

And the Pakistanis, who once spurned Indian films for taking over their domestic market, are now lending stars to India.
Leading the collaborations, Lollywood's Muammar Rana, 30, was scooped up by Bollywood in March for a supporting role in the film "Do Bara" (Once Again). He was cast alongside Indian megastars Jackie Shroff, Raveena Tandon and Mahima Choudhury. Working in Bollywood blew Rana away. "My experience of working in India was out of this world," he said on his return after spending weeks in Bombay.

His anxieties about how a Pakistani would be treated in what was just two years ago "nuclear enemy territory" dissolved soon after landing in Bombay.

"I was shaky and fearful to start with. But everybody there turned out to be so nice and wonderful that I felt very confident and comfortable during the shooting of the film," he told AFP. "All of them gave me lots of love and respect and frankly I was overwhelmed by the sentiment. "Indian film industry people are very keen to come over to Pakistan and work here." he said. Now it is the turn of Pakistan's screen goddesses to dip their toes in Bollywood. Top actress Meera has signed deals to act in two Bollywood films, "Allah Malik" (God is Supreme), to be produced by Bombay-based P.D. Mehra, and "Lal Haveli (Red Mansion), to be produced by Bollywood's famous Bhatt family. Pakistan had long been a whipping target of Bollywood directors, who used the unrest in Kashmir as the ultimate dramatic backdrop for their richly-coloured plots. But the trend has changed under the new environment of reconciliation initiated by President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee in January. Musharraf appealed to filmmakers in India "to avoid producing movies which promote hatred," during a video conference with Indian intellectuals and journalists in March. Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri issued a similar plea a month earlier. Both countries' film industries signed a memorandum of understanding in March vowing to refrain from making movies hostile each other. "We signed an MOU with Indian producers to avoid making movies which can promote hatred against each other," Pakistan Film Producers Association chairman Amjad Farzand told AFP. "'Let's bury the past and start afresh,' was the commitment."