The India-Pakistan exchange of talent

After the Mumbai attacks, Indian extremist parties such as the Shiv Sena and Raj Thackeray’s MNS openly called for a boycott of Pakistani artists and threatened producers not to take Pakistani talent. To drive the point home, they even burned CDs of Pakistani singers including Ghulam Ali, Adnan Sami Khan and Ataullah Essa Khelvi.

But all may not be lost yet. In a thawing of sorts, the Indo-Pak cultural exchange seems to be going ahead. The first surprising news was from theatre group Ajoka, who recently performed their popular play Bullah at an international theatre festival in Kerala. Being the first theatre group from Pakistan to perform in India about 20 years back, the Lahore-based Ajoka is keen to diffuse the unease and distrust between the two neighbouring countries following the Mumbai terror attacks in November.

“It is our small attempt to help and diffuse the tension. We can’t afford all this tension, this war hysteria. Peace activists and artists like us have worked very hard to build this peace process. It is heartbreaking to imagine that it may get derailed,” said Madeeha Gauhar, well-known Pakistani theatre actor and Artistic Director of Ajoka Theatre in an interview with The Hindu.

Of course if Ajoka Theatre can visit India and perform peacefully, then the situation for Pakistanis may not be as bad as has been portrayed by sections of the Indian media, who played up the MNS and Shiv Sena statements. Pakistani stars, who were asked to postpone their trip after the Mumbai attacks, have visited India for their work commitments and term them as successful and secure. Recently Mehreen Raheel and Noman Ijaz, who are working in a co-production movie with India, Virsa, have returned back home after shooting there for 16 to 17 days.

“Everything is quite normal in India and you generally don’t find any resentment in the people there,” said Noman Ijaz while talking to Instep Today. “Of course, their media has propagated the incident and some people in India have been influenced by the recurrent anti-Pakistan theories passed there. But where there are 50 per cent people talking against our country, we have 50 per cent of the public talking about friendship and exchange of talent.”

Over a month has passed since the Mumbai attacks, and India seems to have eased over the issue a bit and started thinking rationally; keeping an eye on their internal conflicts as well. Notable are the filmmakers who are still supportive of the co-productions, and have gradually started to pave the way for their Pakistani counterparts.

“They know it is India’s domestic problem and by blaming it on us they have conveniently taken an escape route of further tensions on the basis of religion,” shared Humayun Saeed who is starring in Mahesh Bhatt’s next movie, Jashn. “Open minded people like Mahesh Bhatt openly talk about the political game played by their parties for power by putting Indo-Pakistan relations at stake.”

Similar views were shared by Noman Ijaz who was recently there for 17 days and faced no ill behaviour from anyone in India. “It seemed that nothing has ever gone wrong there. They were very much hospitable and gracious,” said Noman. “I worked with Gulshan Grover, Kanwaljit and the rest of the crew members of Virsa and no one even talked about the incident. They actually blame their politicians for creating the chaos between two countries.”

Ali Zafar is another star who has recently returned back from India after completing his shoot for his first Bollywood venture. He refused to talk about the project yet as he wants his director to publicise the movie. Ali Zafar was in India at the time of 26/11 attack and there were rumours that Ali would be flying back home because of the wave of Indian hostility towards Pakistanis but he stayed there, finished off his work and came. Though he refused to reveal any details about his movie, he was happy with the treatment he got in India even after the Mumbai carnage.

Just like the cliché goes that every coin has two sides, every story has two points of view as well. There is no denying the fact that things have been strained on both sides of the border, preventing us from having any new Bollywood releases in Pakistan and slowing down the exchange of talent but while the process has slowed down… it has definitely not stopped! In fact Indian TV channels have resumed airing songs by Pakistani stars. Their music channels have Atif Aslam and Call in their playlists once again and TV shows Comedy Circus and Great Indian Laughter Challenge with Pakistani comedians in it are airing as well. The episodes are not new but at least they are gradually opening ways for Pakistani artists’ re-entry into their industry. It might take some time but hopefully things will settle down in favour of both countries. ­