Pakistani cinemas have lifted a ban on Bollywood movies and will start screening them from December 19.
The ban came after relations between the two countries dipped to a new low following border tensions.
On September 30, the managements of Pakistani cinemas announced an indefinite suspension of screening of all Bollywood movies as a protest against the ban of Pakistani artists in India. The ban on their artists in India came after an attack on an army base in Uri, Jammu and Kashmir. 19 soldiers were killed in the attack.
Pakistani cinema owners on Saturday said they had only suspended the screening of Indian movies, but had not completely banned them, Dawn online reported.
According to the cinema owners, the movies that could not be screened due to the suspension of Indian content will be screened first.
“We lifted the suspension as a cinema guild. We took this decision to support them [Indian cinemas] and expect them to support us,” said a cinema owner.
The first movie to be screened will be actor Nawazuddin Siddiqui’s Freaky Ali.
Bollywood films are popular in Pakistan, and the self-imposed suspension is reported to have led to a dramatic loss of revenue.
Indian movies returned to Pakistani cinema houses in 2008 after a 43-year long hiatus after the ban was imposed during the 1965 war.
