The Pakistani film industry is a budding industry that has a fragile infrastructure, high production costs relative to low box-office returns, and scarcity of screens, which has led the audience to rely more on TV-style narratives. Good storylines in TV series and costly ticket prices have forced people to direct themselves to readily available entertainment on YouTube, since the local cinema is struggling with financial viability.
Lack of consistent investment has led to scant infrastructure and resources. Some of the filmmakers turn to foreign grants, as excellent production studios and funding bodies are almost non-existent. But foreign grants come with certain compromises and dilution of cultural authenticity that has an appeal to international audiences rather than the domestic ones.
In general, the Asian market is a dominant force in the global film industry, driven by major markets such as China, Japan, South Korea, and India. The rapid expansion of digital streaming platforms offers numerous opportunities.
Television and digital success in Pakistan has attracted not only the local audiences but the broader Asian market, such as those that live in India. A high demand for Pakistani storytelling is evident. Massive demand for anime and Korean drama has transformed the Asian film-making scene into a powerful, technologically advanced, and globally recognized powerhouse.
China's booming cinema market and Japanese animation have given rise to a surge in cross-border collaborations, fostering high production values and shifting focus toward diverse digital content creation. These countries have the resources, both financial and technological, that could eradicate the systematic barriers profusely visible in the Pakistani filmmaking landscape.
Creativity and infrastructure are the two highlighted barriers that have prevented Pakistani films from flourishing. Filmmaking funds have been historically scarce in the region since a limited number of private filmmakers are using their own investments to craft movies with high-risk perceptions. There always remains an unseen risk whether the film will be successful or not, whether the film will be able to breakeven or prove to be profitable, and whether cinemagoers will be able to buy the expensive tickets for a one-time experience, which they could easily achieve from the comfort of their homes, watching dramas on YouTube.
In July 2025, Meer Entertainment asserted: "Most film graduates lack even the basic knowledge of how to market their films or navigate the distribution system. Investors view filmmaking as a high-risk venture, leading to a shortage of funding opportunities."
More recently, Dawn News reported that the Sindh cabinet approved a Rs 1 billion filmmaking fund for documentaries for public awareness, while the new Punjab government allowed Rs 2 billion funds for promoting the film industry. These steps are taken for completing partially finished projects and supporting new films.
These steps are beneficial for the future of Pakistani filmmaking, as they facilitate a one-window operation to reduce bureaucratic hurdles, provide major incentives for box office business and tax exemptions for film production, as well as training in film schools and similar programs for new talent. The revival of Lollywood, however, requires more than policy reforms and institutional support.
It demands a coherent creative vision, consistent investment every year, and a robust production and distribution system. Inadequate marketing conveniences add fuel to the fire, as uneven technical standards hinder Pakistani films from competing with Chinese or Korean films.
Not only that, but the lack of distribution for Pakistani films and facing difficulties breaking into the mainstream Asian box office are the main cinematic challenges compared to Bollywood. Weak distribution networks continue to foil the industry's growth.
Why are Pakistani film festivals like Islamabad International Film Festival (IIFF) and the Gandhara Independent Film Festival not able to push local films for international distribution to get wider international exposure? Both the Cannes and Toronto film festivals have established themselves as destinations where films can be acquired by distribution partners, even for regions beyond the US and the UK.
The Pakistani film industry is currently navigating a rough terrain of resurgence and structural challenges. While films like The Legend of Maula Jatt (2022) received screenings in the U.S., there are still plenty of brilliant Pakistani films that face significant barriers in securing mainstream global distribution.
The declining screen count and concentration of functional cinema screens in only about five percent of cities nationwide has caused a crucial impediment for film entertainment to reach mass audiences. Naturally, during uncertain times when foreign Bollywood films are banned in Pakistan, cinemas struggle to survive, further reducing the exhibition space for future Pakistani films.
These primary structural issues contribute to stagnation in film quality, including a lack of scriptwriting depth, monotonous casting, and the absence of modern and professional training infrastructure. This outcome is paradoxical, as the situation should have produced the opposite effect. Instead, the existing gap in the industry could have been seized by the authorities as an opportunity to strengthen local cinema by encouraging artistic, experimental, and critically driven films with strong commercial potential. Such an approach is especially viable given that Pakistani audiences are already accustomed to consuming complex, globally produced content across multiple platforms, which has the capacity and the appetite for nuanced and sophisticated storytelling.
Gunjal (2023), pictured at the top, is one of them. It's a story of a real child labor activist, Iqbal Masih, who was murdered, highlighting themes of injustice and labor exploitation. Potent stories like these still need a broad acceptance not only internationally, but locally first. This signifies that complex stories in Pakistan have cultural and political hindrances and are not lauded as much as a wholesome story of systematic caste, religious discrimination, and problems in pursuing police jobs, as depicted in Bollywood's Homebound (2025), India's official entry for Best International Feature at the 98th Academy Awards. (It made the shortlist, but did not receive a nomination.)
If only the disparity of film production in these two regions is compared, Pakistani cinema operates within tighter political sensitivities, limited funding avenues, and weaker marketing networks. Pakistani films that aim to address controversial social realities are mostly subjected to censorship and wider theatrical releases. Certainly, limited screenings and muted promotional campaigns do not help.
Sarmad Sultan Khoosat, a prominent Pakistani filmmaker, producer, and actor, faced momentous controversy regarding 2019 film Zindagi Tamasha and as a producer for the 2022 film Joyland. Both films faced bans and severe censorship in Pakistan due to their subject matter, highlighting the immense pressure on independent artists of the country. Great stories have great narratives but are dismissed from reaching a wider audience. What's more surprising is that Joyland won the Jury prize at Cannes and was Pakistan's official Oscar entry, but was considered "repugnant to the norms of decency" by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting.
This shifts our focus to cultural constraints, where complex and confrontational stories are often met with resistance rather than celebration. The national image management and prioritization of moral conservatism operate strongly in Lollywood, as the film's narratives have to manifest social harmony over critical self-reflection. Obviously, the narratives challenging dominant power structures, class exploitation, religious authority, child labour, gender inequality or state accountability have to undergo rigorous censorship, usually perceived as threatening rather than a necessary intervention.
This leads us to think of another issue in the film-making censorship: is there a relative thematic freedom for Pakistani TV dramas as compared to films? Different censor standards exist for both Pakistani series and films. A perceived cinematic "immortality" operates in the region, under the rigid guidelines of The Central Board of Film Censors (CBFC), believing that film is a public and paid "collective" experience, where audiences of all ages will be coming to the cinemas. It could be more threatening for the younger audiences to watch controversial content, which otherwise could be only watched by a select number of audiences on YouTube, where free dramas and series' content is available at all times.
What is the way forward, then? Collaboration is the key. Aspiring filmmakers should support the newcomers, and the government should think more to benefit everyone, along with censorship reforms, infrastructure development, established mentorship programs, and greater accessible funding. Meaningful progress will come from a coordinated effort that can advance Pakistani cinema beyond survival by making globally competitive films.
Echoes is an opinion column on film and television from the perspective of a writer based in Pakistan.