Lollywood

Champion · #1 07-09-2005, 03:27 AM

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Lollywood refers to the Pakistani film industry, based in the city of Lahore. The name is a conflation of "Lahore" and "Hollywood". During the 1930s the movies made in Lahore were under the influence of Hollywood movies, not just in the stories or action or drama but the acting, the makeup and the costumes as well. The heroes would appear like Douglas Fairbanks or Errol Flynn. The reason for this is noted to be the fact that Lahore tried to establish its own identity separate from that of Bombay, India at that time. In this respect Kardaar and M. Ismael started a studio by the name of United People’s on Ravi Road, Lahore. Actors that worked for the studios were Heera Laal, Gul Hameed, Nazeer and Ahmed Dean and the actresses were Kaushalya Devi, Gulzaar, Mumtaaz. From the studios papers in 1929 were received different film projects that were planned out and surprisingly most had English Titles like; Sweet Heart, The Prisoner, Masked Rider, The Golden Dagger, Passion Flower, The Sacred Flame, House Boat, Golden Temple, The Award, Paradise. There were also others with Urdu Titles such as Lala Rukh, Kafir (Infidel), Khawaja Sira and Firdaus. But not all projects were ever completed as not only silent movies were on the brink of extinction but also a very Competitive Bombay film industry and Calcutta film industry were already involved in making of many sound movies and ultimately Bombay won, when it released its first sound movie in 1931 called Aalim Ara. In Lahore the pioneer of making Sound Movies was Hakeem Ram Parsaad making Heer Raanjha starring M.Ismael, Rafiq Ghaznavi,Nazir and actress Anwari. This was to be the last movie directed by Kardaar in Lahore. From here on he moved to Calcutta and later Bombay.

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