Pakistani film shot in India premieres in UK

A Pakistani film shot in India and Pakistan has premiered in Bradford, Britain.

Most Lollywood films, the name for the Lahore-based Pakistani film industry, have their premieres in Pakistan, but the production company's marketing manager Raja Tariq Mehmood comes from Bradford and made sure it was screened in his home city first.

Because of difficulties in getting visas for the cast, most of the shooting for Larki Punjaban was done in India and Pakistan instead of at locations around Bradford.

Marketing manager Mehmood said, "The film is a love-story between an Indian girl and a young man from Pakistan."

"It is two cultures, two faiths, one love story. We originally wanted the girl to be from England and we had hoped to do some of the filming in Bradford. I had seen some of the houses in Clayton we could have used," he said. "But we got so frustrated with problems with visas and not being able to get some of the cast members over here that we had to change the story and make the girl from Malaysia."

"These films are usually premiered in India and Pakistan first but we wanted to bring it to Bradford because we are a Yorkshire company and in the original script Bradford would have featured a lot," he added.

The film is due for general release in the UK, US, India and Pakistan on November 21.

Syed Noor, a prominent Pakistani director, conceived the story and Shashilal Nair co-directed it.

The film is about a Sikh girl, Preetam, who falls in love with Muslim Shamyl Khan when visiting Lahore. They struggle to cross the cultural divide as their parents' prejudices threaten to keep the lovers apart.

General manager of the Odeon cinema in Bradford Cliff Bailey said, "We are absolutely delighted to be involved with the premiere of this very important film. It is brilliant for us to be able to help launch a film of this quality in Bradford."