Pashto film director calls for govt patronage

PESHAWAR: Noted film director Mumtaz Ali Khan has called for sincere government initiatives to revive the film industry.

Incentives and patronage from the government can help the film industry stand on its own feet and revive the cinema-going culture when cinema halls would be jampacked, he told The News.


He said the industry could be steered of crises by tax waivers and concession in duty on raw materials used in film production. “Normally, a Pashto film can be produced for Rs5 to 5.5 million, including up to Rs1.5 million of raw material expenses, while best Urdu movie costs Rs10 to 15 million,” he explained.

Seeing a bright future for Pashto films, he said there was a time when half of the audience at cinema halls would be female as films produced in the decades of 70s and 80s had no vulgar scenes and dialogues and could be watched with family members.

Mumtaz Ali said film was the best medium to mould opinion. “I have an idea of producing movie on the situation in the Pashtun belt if the Khyber Pakhtunkhwa government provides me assistance. The film would have a message and guidance for the younger generation,” said the elderly man, who has directed about 45 Pashto, Urdu and Punjabi movies.

Nowadays he is working on a documentary on Pakhtuns to be completed in two months. Born in Pabbi town of Nowshera district in December 1949, Mumtaz Ali ventured into the film industry when he was 20 years old. He said: “After passing my SSC examination in 1969, I got admission in Edwardes College Peshawar, but after four or five months I gave up studies and went to Lahore for making debut in films. Samad Hosh (late) introduced me to comedy king Rangeela who accommodated me as an assistant in Urdu films Diya Aur Toofan, Dil Aur Dunya and Rangeela. Later, I directed Pashto super hit, Darra Khyber. Orbal, Khana Badosh, Deedan, Jawargar and Naway Da Yaway Shpe were the hit movies that I produced.”

He was the first director in the subcontinent who produced one film in two languages known as Naway da Yaway Shpe and Dulhan Ek Raat Ki and both were hits. His first Punjabi film, Raakha, was also a hit.

Mumtaz Ali, starting film direction at very young age, not only earned appreciation from the industry but won award for his Urdu film, Daakoo Ki Larki. He introduced new talent including Ajab Gul, Jamil Babar, Ismail Shah, Humayun Qureshi, Mussarat Shaheen and Lubna Khattak, who later became stars.

He felt vulgar scenes and the death or exit of senior directors as major reasons for decline of the film industry, especially Pashto. He said producers and artistes like Sanobar Khan, Sher Afgan, Rafiq Shinwari, Amir Ghulam Sadiq, Aziz Tabassum, Gulnar Begum, Kishwar Sultan, etc, left the field open for fortune-makers and thus the decline in film industry started.

“Though vulgarity has been reduced to a great extent, producers, directors and artistes now produce CD films that could be made in Rs500,000 and return on it is also immediate. A CD film is produced in 10 shifts of 7 to 8 hours and is released in a week while its cost is low,” he explained. He also held cinema owners and the government responsible for the slump in the industry.