HYDERABAD Film star Mustafa Qureshi is very much concerned about the current state of Pakistan's film industry but he has not lost hopes about its revival.

He believed that the PPP government should put its foot down to revive the industry as there was a great potential among young artists who could produce quality films.
 
In an interview, he called for a blanket ban on exhibition of Indian movies in the country and pleaded a five-year tax holiday for the industry to help revive it.

Mr Qureshi, who hails from Hyderabad, was in the city for a couple of days to attend a marriage in his family.

Discussing the dying film industry of the country, the towering film star with a roaring voice, said that for revival of film industry Indian movies' exhibition must be banned. 'We can at least ban them. Can't we? The revival of our industry is quite possible', he claimed.

To make his point, he argued that there was a downfall of film industry in France where the government had to intervene and offered loans to film makers besides giving incentives. Their government, in fact, sponsored films.

He was confident that President Asif Zardari would help the film industry because he himself played a role in a film when he was a child. 'Senior film actors owe a responsibility to play their role to help revive films', he said.

'Regardless of present circumstances I think in a country of 170 million souls our youths have the potentials, who in line with modern day needs, can produce films that are at par with international standards. But the only drawback is that investors are not there or they don't have required financial resources', he said.

And for this to happen, he said, government should come forward and finance films to produce quality films like 'Khuda key liye' - a film that had an objective. He said that incentives could be given in the shape of exemption of duty on raw materials.

'Existing circumstances demand that a five-year tax holiday should be declared for the film industry. We have already submitted our proposals and if these are implemented, then revival of industry is possible. We need latest technology, laboratories, cameras and other related equipments', he remarked.

He called for proper training of technicians the way India and other countries did.

He pointed out that while provinces have culture ministers our federal cabinet doesn't have one. In Nawaz Sharif government late Mohammad Ali had held that portfolio, he added.

He regretted that we don't have institutes or their performance is not upto the mark.

'Its our 'national tragedy' that we failed to create a second line of artists and same is the case in other fields. We had Sadeqain and Gul Jee but we don't have their replacement today,' he said when asked whether existing artists can be a true replacement for the fast vanishing old breed. He strongly called for making institutes stronger or activating them.

He hailed private production of dramas at TV channels as a result of media's expansion and said that these channels have the resources and if they made some serious efforts they could make films and exhibit them in India or wherever they want.

'We had to make do with 80- year old technology in film industry and it is not interesting that with such resources we are often able to produce films that do attract business', he said. He expressed the hope that President Asif Ali Zardari would give a patient hearing to artists and we are keen to call on him.

'There are artists who don't want to see this film industry die. We have proposals and we want them to brief the president,' he said.

The previous government had held two days conference and a meeting was also held with Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz where we submitted our proposals which were accepted and appreciated. But since then they didn't see light of the day', he said.

He, however, expressed the hope that the present government would come forward to help revive film industry because it's a people's government.