Pakistani cinemas have stopped showing Indian films after India banned Pakistani actors from its movie industry amid soaring tensions between the two nuclear-armed rivals over Kashmir, cinema owners said on Saturday.
Nadeem Mandviwala, who owns nearly a dozen cinemas in Karachi and Islamabad, said that he and other distributors have agreed to stop showing Indian films until relations improve. He said the ban is a private initiative.
The move came after the main association of Indian film producers and exhibitors adopted a resolution, on Thursday, banning Pakistani actors from working on their films.
The latest tensions were sparked by a militant attack on an Indian army base in Kashmir that killed 18 Indian soldiers. Both countries claim the Himalayan territory, which is split between Indian and Pakistani-controlled zones.
Mandviwala said every year up to 80 Indian films are shown at Pakistani cinemas and earn millions from the Pakistani market.
But opinions on the ban are divided among Bollywood personalities.
Bollywood superstar Salman Khan, on Friday, questioned the campaign against Pakistani actors working in India, saying they were not terrorists.
Producer-director Pahlaj Nihalani and actor Anupam Kher supported the association's decision. They are well-known supporters of Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party.
Earlier in the week, a Mumbai-based regional party, the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena asked Pakistani actors and artists to leave India within 48 hours or be pushed out in the wake of the Kashmir attacks.
Pakistan Bans Broadcast of All Indian Television Channels
Two days after India's movie industry body banned Pakistani artists and actors from working in India, Islamabad banned the broadcast of all Indian television channels in Pakistan, ANI reported on Saturday.
Pakistan Electronic Media Regulatory Authority (PEMRA) said strict action would be taken if TV channels and distribution networks failed to implement the ban after 15 October. It said it has been receiving complaints that several local private channels were showing Indian talk shows, reality programmes and dramas without permission.
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