Meera: In India-Pakistan film 'Nazar'

With the competitive Bollywood movie industry making hundreds of films a year, new releases need a selling point -- and the people behind India and Pakistan's first co-production hope they're onto a winner.

The supernatural thriller "Nazar", or "Sight", which hits the silver screen next month, features a leading lady from Pakistan and is the first to be jointly funded by the South Asian rivals.

The movie shows that hostile relations are thawing not only between Pakistan's "Lollywood" film business and Bollywood but also between the two countries themselves, according to the moviemakers.

"Pakistani actors had previously worked in the Indian movies but this is the first movie which is jointly funded by Indian and Pakistani producers," said Pakistani co-producer Sohail Khan.

"The most important aspect of this effort is to promote goodwill between the people of Pakistan and India."

Bollywood movies are hugely popular in Pakistan despite a ban on showing them in cinemas. DVDs and VCDs are widely sold while private TV cable operators broadcast them nightly.

And cooperation between Bombay-based Bollywood and Lollywood, which is centred on Pakistan's cultural capital Lahore, has increased along with the slow-moving political dialogue between the nuclear-armed neighbours.

Sohail said he would try to get "Nazar" shown in Pakistan despite the ban.

"The film is almost complete and it is going to be screened in January," he said. "We will ask the government of Pakistan to allow the release of the movie in Pakistani cinemas."

The film is being co-produced on the Indian side by leading filmmaker Mahesh Bhatt, who chose Pakistani actress Meera as its star.

He said on the sidelines of the Karachi International Film Festival at the week-end that increased cultural cooperation between India and Pakistan went hand in hand with the current climate of political detente.

"We are working today in a more relaxed atmosphere and more producers who were reluctant to invest in co-productions will come forward if it continues," said Bhatt -- who was in Karachi with his actress daughter Pooja for the world premiere of her new film, "Rog".

"Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh told me in Delhi recently that the peace process would not be derailed this time, which gives us more confidence."

Several Indian stars have visited Pakistan this year while the Pakistanis have been lending theirs to India, including Muammar Rana, who in March played a supporting role in the Bollywood film "Do Bara" [Once More].

Bhatt, whose wife Soni Razdan directed the film, has also used Pakistani performers in the past.

"I used songs from Pakistani singers for my box-office hit film 'Murder'. It's a strange turnaround as the Pakistanis themselves have not used their talent," he said.

Many Indian and Pakistani films have nationalistic overtones due to the neighbours' long and bitter history of rivalry.

But Bhatt, who has often picked controversial social issues for his movies, urged both Lollywood and Bollywood not to show Hindus or Muslims, Pakistanis or Indians as villains.

"There is no denying that Pakistan was looked upon in the past as an enemy country and vice-versa. This is now changing drastically," he said.

"There is a need to change our villains, from Hindu and Muslim to those who do injustice in society."●