CHAKWAL: The Chakwal city’s first and sole house of entertainment known as Nishat Cinema has now permanently been closed.

The owners of Nishat Cinema have sold the entity to an influential businessman of the city who is not willing to run the building as a cinema rather will use it for some other business activity.

With the closure of Nishat Cinema, Chakwal has become the fresh victim of continued film decline in Pakistan.

It was Raja Allah Ditta who established Nishat Cinema in the district somewhere in the last years of 1960 when Pakistan's film industry was roaring with success.

The two-storey building contained a hall and a gallery. The capacity in the cinema was 506 seats. As the Urdu word “Nishat” means happiness and entertainment, the cinema stood by its name and kept on providing a rare sort of entertainment to the film lovers for four decades.

The first ever movie screened at Nishat Cinema in 1960 was one of Noor Jehan's super hit “Koail”, which like other cinemas in the country also attracted hundreds of film lovers in Chakwal too.

Baz Khan, 85, who was recruited as the gatekeeper at Nishat Cinema in 1966, offers a tumultuous account of the shimmering history of the cinema.

The period between 1966 and 1985 was the best of time not only for Pakistani film industry but also for thousands of people who were associated with the film business.

“I was recruited on a hefty pay of Rs500 (an amount which was even not offered to gazetted officers of civil service at that time). I lived a lavish and prosperous life but my pocket never ran short of money,” Baz Khan tells Dawn.

“The ticket fee was six anas (one and a quarter part of one rupee as one rupee contains 16 anas), he recalls.

Due to his deteriorating health and old age, Baz Khan finds it difficult to recall the exact cast of various blockbuster films.

He, however, does name a few films like Heer Ranjha, Dilan de Saoday, Naukar Vohti Da, Dillagi and Dubai Chalo.

Baz Khan also narrates the story of that time when legendry actors and singers like Ejaz, Firdaus, Munawar Zarif, Mumtaz, Waheed Murad, Shabnam, Nayyiar Sultana, Nanha, Shahid, Neelo, Noor Jehan, Mehdi Hassan, Runa Laila, Naheed Akhtar and Inait Hussain Bhati used to rule the hearts of millions. And this was the time when every other

movie proved blockbuster as there were souls like Masud Pervaiz, Aslam Dar and Shaukat Hussain Rizvi etc.

“There was a time when Nishat Cinema had 14 employees during 1970s and when it took its last breath it had only two employees,” adds Baz Khan.

Mohammad Hanif, who retired as a booking clerk after serving 36 years at Nishat Cinema, blames cable network and continued decline of film standards for the closure of the cinemas.

“In a backward city like Chakwal, women used to come with men and even alone to watch films,” he recalls.

Raja Shaukat, one of the owners of Nishat Cinema, adds.

“Since 2001, we were facing heavy loss as only two to five persons came to watch films. That's why we were not left with any other option but to shut the cinema.”

In the present environment, it is a risky business to run a cinema in cities like Chakwal, says Chaudhry Waseem Zafar, who has now bought the cinema.

“I cannot take the risk to run a cinema. Even a cinema equipped with modern technology and facilities is not supposed to do well in Chakwal,” he explains.

Talking to Dawn on phone, renowned film director Shahzad Rafique listed many factors behind the film decline in the country.

“Entertainment is being killed in small cities and where there is no entertainment there would sprout crimes,” he said and added that the Producers Association in corroboration with the Punjab government was trying its best to revive the film industry.

“We have taken a bitter sip by allowing Indian films to be screened in Pakistan as this was the sole way left to save the cinema culture from complete extinction. After a couple of years, the film industry would be back on its track.”