Thread by @hyzaidi

@omarali50 @shakirhusain @XilleIlahi @vjgtweets @mazdaki @Ziyad_F @microMAF @odysseuslahori @saeedma08417161 So if I may, my take is that it was a combination of factors but the rot had begun to set in after the banning of films from Bollywood in 1960s. This protectionism helped Lollywood initially but also set in motion the charba (plagiarism) culture and lack of competition ...>

@omarali50 @shakirhusain @XilleIlahi @vjgtweets @mazdaki @Ziyad_F @microMAF @odysseuslahori @saeedma08417161 ...eventually became our undoing. The second huge blow was the secession of East Pak, which deprived us of a huge market and very talented filmmakers. Then came the tech revolution brought by the advent of home videos. This was a major challenge for cinema everywhere but...>

@omarali50 @shakirhusain @XilleIlahi @vjgtweets @mazdaki @Ziyad_F @microMAF @odysseuslahori @saeedma08417161 ...while cinema around the world rose to the challenge (trying to making films more of a cinematic experience), we were hobbled at the same time by Zia’s antipathy to film (harsh censors, lack of support, marginalisation of filmmakers as a ‘bunch of fornicators’) and the...>

@omarali50 @shakirhusain @XilleIlahi @vjgtweets @mazdaki @Ziyad_F @microMAF @odysseuslahori @saeedma08417161 ...social changes brought about by his regime. Women stopped going to cinemas so they became an all male preserve, filmmakers responded by catering mainly to them, which reinforced women and families staying away etc. Combine this with the rise of regional culture under ZAB...>

@omarali50 @shakirhusain @XilleIlahi @vjgtweets @mazdaki @Ziyad_F @microMAF @odysseuslahori @saeedma08417161 ..(a good thing) and the influx of black money (as the only source of financing of films) and the result was a takeover by Punjabi and Pushto films that catered mainly to the single male rural migrant labour class. Then with the rise of sat dishes, CDs and more piracy, things...>

@omarali50 @shakirhusain @XilleIlahi @vjgtweets @mazdaki @Ziyad_F @microMAF @odysseuslahori @saeedma08417161 ..just went from bad to worse. Cinemas kept shutting down (in 1981 Pak had > 1300 cinemas, by 2001 that number was down to 200 or so) and fewer and fewer films were being made (> 100 in 1981, 20-odd in 2001).
So yes, Zia was a huge factor in film’s decline but not the only one.