REPORT
Industry veterans lay
groundwork for film
guild
C
harles Plumb was an American navy pilot stationed
in Vietnam back in the day. He ran out of luck
after 75 successful combat missions, when his
plane was shot down by an air missile. Plumb, however,
managed to eject himself from the aircraft in the nick of
time and parachuted to the ground. Several years after,
the fighter pilot and his wife were approached by a man
while having dinner in a restaurant. The man revealed
that it was him who had packed Plumb’s parachute that
fateful day to which the latter gasped in surprise and
gratitude. This was the anecdote narrated by Hashim
Raza to stakeholders of the Pakistani entertainment industry when he pitched the idea of a film guild to them.
“The idea behind the guild is very simple: acknowledging
the efforts of each and every person in the film-making
process, right from actors and directors to camera operators and
the
light
g u y s , ”
Raza explained to
B O O M .
“Actors and
directors
tend to get
all the accolades.
It is the
technical
department
that always
misses
out.”
As
the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Cinepax Cinemas,
Raza is of the opinion that there needs to be a proper
standard operating procedure for film-making in Pakistan. He compared his vision for the Pakistani film guild to
the Academy of Motion Pictures Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) in America. He also touched upon the difficulties
he faced himself when starting out in this line of work, lamenting the absence of a proper channel through which
the next generation of film-makers and studio executives
could come through. “It was either the people who had
a lot of money that were venturing into film-making or
the old guards [directors such as Syed Noor] who were
continuing to make substandard movies. There was no
place where a young film-maker could go to seek mentorship,” he explained. With a proper film guild in place,
Raza believes that aspiring film-makers will know the
right individuals to approach and seek guidance from.
Safeguarding the interests of the industry’s stakeholders
and promoting the new wave of film-makers seems to be
at the heart of the organisation. However, Raza reiterated that these were not their sole objectives. “What we
really want is to provide a financially viable model for the
film industry,” he claimed. The guild is a joint brainchild
of both Raza and film distributor, Satish Anand — also
the CEO of Eveready Pictures. It is currently in the planning stage and expected to follow a membership system
— much like its American counterpart. “Initially, we want
to get as many people from the film indus