Cinema of Pakistan

The Cinema of Pakistan, or simply, Pakistani Cinema (Urdu: پاکستانی سنیما‎) refers to Pakistan's film industry. Most of the feature films shot in Pakistan are in Urdu, the national language, but may also include films in English, the official language, and regional languages such as Punjabi, Pashto, Balochi, and Sindhi. Lahore was the epicentre of Pakistani cinema and Pakistan's largest film industry was Lollywood after The film industry again shifted its base in Karachi & by 2007 Karachi has permanently become the Pakistani film and showbiz industry's headquarters.

Before the separation of Bangladesh, Pakistan had three main film production centres: Lahore, Karachi and Dhaka. Dhaka as a film centre was lost after the creation of Bangladesh in 1971. The regime of Muhammad Zia-ul-Haq, VCRs, film piracy, the introduction of entertainment taxes, and Islamic laws and the subsequent 'Islamization' of Pakistani society, have been some of the many obstacles to the industry's growth. Once thriving, the cinema in Pakistan had a sudden collapse in the 1980s and by the 2000s "an industry that once produced an average of 80 films annually was now struggling to even churn out more than two films a year.". However, the industry has recently made a dramatic and remarkable comeback, evident from the fact that 18 of the 21 highest grossing Pakistani movies were released from 2013-2016.