The second smallest continent of the world, Europe plays host to people belonging to different cultures, speaking different languages and espousing different religious ideas. By embracing such religious and cultural diversity, Europe negates the theory of clash of civilizations.

These observations were made by the chairman of the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs, Fateyab Ali Khan, at the opening of the first European documentary festival on Friday evening. The festival is organized by the Royal Netherlands Embassy in collaboration with the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs, Karafilm Society and Alliance Francaise.

This film festival is a chance to let people know what film-making in Pakistan really has to offer and by bringing feature films, documentaries and shorts to the UK it will offer a unique opportunity to savour the experience of a socially-engaged documentary/art-film sector as well as the entertaining and cultish world of commercial cinema in Pakistan. Based in Lahore, the latter is known affectionately and somewhat ironically as, ‘Lollywood’!!

‘Pehlee Dharkan’ translates as ‘First Heartbeat’ and this is exactly what Heer Productions has provided via the Pakistani Film, Media and Arts Festival, which will take place from 13th – 25th September.

Karachi is famous for food, sandy beaches, bustling lifestyle and Kara Film festival. Kara film festival is an event organized by KaraFilm society a group of young committed filmmakers.

Last year’s festival “Dekh magar Pyar se” (”watch but do it with love” is probably the right translation for the phrase) was a blast. Among many other attractions of this festival there were movies such as “Khamosh Pani aka silent waters” winner of Grand Prize at Locarno Film Festival, world premier of “Paap” a Mahesh Bhatt production directed by Pooja Bhatt and “Ghar ki Talash”. The festival was a smash hit thousands of people visited and watched movies with great enthusiasm. There were movies from USA, UK, Europe, Bangladesh, India and Pakistan.

The pioneers of Pakistani rock music, ‘Junoon’ have been invited to perform at the finale of the MTV Awards ceremony in Bombay in December (known as the ‘Immies’, conducted jointly as the Indian Music Industry Awards). The star-studded awards show will feature leading Western artists as well as the crËme of Asia and Europe. These awards are the Asian equivalent of the MTV VMA’s (Video Music Awards) held annually in New York and the EMA’s (European Music Awards) held by MTV Europe each year.

Junoon was previously invited to perform at the Channel [V] music awards in New Delhi where they won the title for ‘Best International Group’ amongst international music icons.

Karishma and Kareena Kapoor, Shilpa Shetty, Shushmita Sen, Sanjay Kapoor, Akshay Kumar, Rishi Kapoor and Neeto Singh, Yash Chopra, Rakesh Roshan, Mahesh and Pooja Bhatt are just some of the Bollywood giants who have been invited by their Lollywood counterparts to spend this Basant in the city.

Most of these actors already have a Pakistani visa and others were in the process of getting one, said film director and writer Asif Ali Pota. He said the proposed programme includes a night at the Lahore Fort, which will be recorded by Prime Television, UK, and a dinner in Karachi hosted by the designer BG.

More than 30 big filmmakers of Lollywood will join bollywood star in Mumbai on March 15th attending the Frames 2004. This global convention is being organized by the Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI) for the entertainment sector. Most of the Bollywood’s entertainment majors will participate in it, Meera, Shaan and Umer Sharif and actor-director Javed Sheikh comprise the Pak team.