Even though film lovers of Pakistan have been crazy with Bollywood films for long, their source of the Indian films have mostly been the pirated CD's till now with the tensions between the two countries always coming as a hurdle in the way of the screening of Bollywood movies in the theatres of Pakistan.
Now it looks like India's neighbour is going to be soon in the list of the fastest growing markets of the Hindi films abroad if things improve from what has been achieved till now with more interaction and participation of more and more artists from the other side of the border in the B-Town and doing away with the ban on Indian movies in Pakistan.
The censor board in Pakistan for the first time in the history gave the green signal for the film 'Bhoothnath' which was released in major cities of Pakistan like Lahore, Karachi, Rawalpindi, Multan, Faisalabad, Gujaranwala, Hyderabad and Gujarat on May 9 in its original un-cut version.
The makers of the film 'Boothnath' can also be proud of the fact that it is the first film of Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan, two of the biggest stars of the Indian film Industry to release in Pakistan.
Eros International, the London AIM listed leading integrated company within the Indian media & entertainment sector releases 'Bhoothnath' in association with the famous Evernew Group and HKC Entertainment, both having an experience of around 50 years in the show business.
Going by the plans of Eros International this is just a preview of what is there in stock for the Bollywood fans in Pakistan.
The President of Distribution, Eros International, Pranab Kapadia said that the company is extremely delighted to be able to distribute their film in Pakistan as the market has a huge appetite and potential and that Eros International has many more films waiting in the pipeline to follow 'Boothnath' to grace the screens in Pakistan.
For Eros International Pakistan becomes the latest addition to the long list of over 50 countries in which the company releases more than 35 films each year in Hindi and other regional languages.
There is one other peculiarity to the release of 'Bhoothnath' in Pakistan.
Amitabh Bachchan and Shah Rukh Khan the two leading stars who can carry off a film with their star power alone and who have a fanatical fan base in Pakistan appear in a movie together which is also a non formula film aimed at giving entertainment to the whole family.
According to Sajjad Gul, Chairman and CEO of the Evernew Group, Pakistanis are absolutely ecstatic to have Amitabh Bachchan's and Shah Rukh Khan's first film to be seen on a big screen in the country which always had a big market for Bollywood films and that his company is glad to work with a leading player like Eros International.
Now that the gates have been opened for unleashing the Indian star power in Pakistan, and improving relations in the other fronts between the two countries, Bollywood can turn out to be a great platform for new forms of cooperation and also will motivate the ailing Pakistan film Industry to come up with new ideas to match up with the films from India.
