Islamabad: Pakistani information minister Shibli Faraz has said Islamabad wanted enhanced cultural cooperation with Riyadh and to ‘speed up’ work on joint film and television productions to bring the people of the two countries closer together.
In 2018, former information minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain visited the Saudi capital and announced Islamabad’s plans to export its television series to the Kingdom. Three serials were selected for dubbing, namely Dhoop Kinare, Tanhaiyan and Aahat.
In January 2018, Parchi became the first Pakistani film ever to release in Saudi Arabia and one of the first international releases in the Kingdom after it ended a nearly 40-year ban on cinemas.
“Some dramas got dubbed and were sent there [Saudi Arabia] … some films ... Some even the royal family watched, like Parchi,” Pakistani information minister Shibli Faraz told Urdu News in an interview that was published on Sunday.
“There is a lot of similarity in our cultures, so on the basis of that, we would want that we can do more joint productions in films, in dramas ... This is a very powerful tool to bring two countries, two relationships, closer together.”
He said productions were already in the pipeline and work on them would be sped up.
“The government’s effort is to bring speed into this [process], and to create an institutional mechanism in which this process can go on without delay,” Faraz added.
