Lollywood
Quantitatively, Pakistan Film Industry (Lollywood) ranks among the top twenty film producing nations of the world with an average of 60 full length feature films per year. Lollywood should take pride in achieving three distinct accolades. The first accomplishment relates to Noor Jehan, also known as `Melody Queen’ by music lovers. She is the country’s most celebrated singer and actress, enjoying popularity in a career spanning about sixty years. Unfortunately no ready data is available about the number of songs recorded by her, which by a conservative estimate may well be around 3000. Actor Sultan Rahi was yet another phenomenon with a total number of 670 films to his credit. He played key roles in 525 films in a period of almost forty years between 1956 to 1995, averaging 16.75 films a year. Pakistan’s third prodigy is the screenwriter Nasir Adib, who claims to have scripted more than 400 films in the last three decades.
In spite of all this, almost all Pakistani films cater to the local market and no serious effort has been made to broaden the audience base of our films or to enter these at international festivals. Very little, therefore, is known or heard about Lollywood outside the country. The indifference and timidity as evinced by this industry have a lot to do with the peculiar history of the evolution of cinema in Pakistan.
It is time to launch a fresh program of development to meet demands of the fast pace of globalization in the domains of information, art, music, culture, entertainment and aesthetics. In other fields such as sports, trade, commerce, and defence, Pakistan has matched and at time achieved an edge over many developing countries of the world through open competition and with government support. But on the cinema front no serious research has been taken in hand to formulate long-term policy. The strategy of prolonged protectionism of the industry has failed to solve its problems. The film world of the country has sunk into the mire of adhocism, surviving from day to day, moment to moment, in the pursuit of the magic wand of commercial success.
With the abundance of unspoilt natural beauty and historical treasures in the country, Lollywood, if it captures its legacy efficiently on celluloid, would achieve world-wide recognition. For all this one looks forward to the cultivation of a fresh crop of talented and committed young men and women to lead Pakistan’s film world towards a bright future in the next century – Mushtaq Gazdar
Leading Men
Ayaz Naik – Badar Munir – Habib – Kamal – Mohammad Ali – Nadeem – Rattan Kumar – Rehman – Santosh Kumar – Shahid – Sudhir – Sultan Rahi – Waheed Murad – Yousuf Khan
Leading Ladies
Aaliya – Aasiya – Anjuman – Babra Sharif – Bahar – Chakori – Deeba – Firdous – Jamila Razzaq – Khursheed Begum – Madiha Shah – Meena Shorey – Mumtaz – Mussarat Nazir – Naghma – Nasima Khan - Nasreen (Senior) – Nayyar Sultana – Neeli – Neelo – Nina – Nimmi – Nisho – Noor Jehan – Rani – Rehana – Renuka Devi – Sabiha Khanum – Saloni – Sangeeta – Shabana – Shabnam - Shamim Ara – Shammi – Suchinda – Yasmin – Zeba
Agha G.A. Gul - Iqbal Kashmiri – Iqbal Shehzad – Luqman – Pervez Malik - Rahman – Sangeeta – Shabab Kiranvi – Shaukat Hussain Rizvi – Sheikh Hasan – S.M. Yousuf – S.Suleman – W.Z. Ahmed – Zahoor Raja – Zia Sarhady
1948 – 1949 – 1950 – 1951 – 1952 – 1953
1954 – 1955 – 1956 – 1957 – 1958 – 1959 – 1960