Lollywood has been floundering for a long time, but there is finally good news for the beleaguered industry! Two Pakistani films have been accepted for screening at the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (Saarc) Film Festival starting from May 11 in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
The festival, to be held at the National Film Corporation Cinema Hall in Colombo, will conclude on May 15. All the member states are required to nominate two feature films. The top three films will be awarded at the end of the event.
Mohabbatan Sachiyan and Shackles …

Models sashay down catwalks, flaunting the latest creations by designers during the first day of Fashion Pakistan week with an opulent opening ceremony in Karachi on April 5, 2010.
The event is scheduled to feature 52 designers – 49 of them from Pakistan and one each from Malaysia, Sri Lanka and the United Arab Emirates – in a follow-up to a first event held in Karachi last November.
Some of the Pakistani fashion designers whose designs were presented on the first day were:

The grass is always greener on the other side thus goes an age-old adage. It seems to be true even in the Hindi film industry. Most actors who are stuck with a particular image feel the other person is better off. While item girls die to do a girl-next-door role thinking that it is the best way to announce their arrival as an actress, there are many who are tired of playing the girl-next-door and want to shed that image and play a glamorous role. Amrita Rao falls in the …

Spunk and bold moves. That’s the new mantra of the Pakistani ramp. Models from Lahore and Karachi are wooing the world of international fashion.
Meet Neha Ahmed. At 23, she’s already catwalked in Paris and Dubai. Next month, she’ll do a show in London for designer Hasan Sheriyar. “We’re getting a lot more international exposure now. I’m listed with agents in Paris and Dubai and keep going for shows there,” says Ahmed. But entry into modelling wasn’t easy. “My father, an armyman, was furious. But that was then. Now, he’s cool …

The Alhamra Art Gallery on The Mall was a venue of high activity on Tuesday when an exhibition of the works of veteran and young artists from Saarc countries was inaugurated under the title of “Old Masters Young Voices” by Chief Minister Pervaiz Elahi.
The exhibition displayed the works of artists from Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Before the exhibition could be officially announced open, it was marred by a fracas between Rashida Reza, wife of Reza Kazim an art patron, and the officials of the Alhamra Arts Council.
Accompanying …

The Pakistan chapter of the UK-based international NGO, Oxfam, has recently begun broadcasting a radio series aimed at raising public awareness of honor killings. In general, women fall victim to a variety of assorted crimes carried out under the common name of ‘honor’ across the country, argue rights activists.
“This series of feature programmes, to be aired twice a week, will cover different aspects of the ‘honor’ killing issue through very interesting and moving stories,” Farhana Faruqi Stocker, Oxfam’s country representative, said in the Pakistani capital, Islamabad, noting it would highlight …

Hoooo… Channo ki aankh mein ik nasha hai. I thought I heard someone sing…dang, you hear it too, don’t you?
Resonating throughout Pakistan, USA, UK, and all around the world for that matter, the sudden Channo-mania has caused quite a hullabaloo, uproar, and frenzy. The man behind the mania, whose voice is often compared to Kishore Kumar’s, is none other than, painter/model/singer, Monsieur Ali Zafar.
We had a chance to meet up with Ali Zafar, who was in Karachi for a couple of days. Sammy kept singing, Ke huqqa paani…
“Arg! It’s stuck …

Pakistan’s film industry has offered to take part in an entertainment extravaganza conducted by Bollywood to raise money for the Prime Minister’s Relief Fund to help tsunami victims.
The offer was made to Bollywood director Mahesh Bhatt, who recently completed the film Nazar, an Indo-Pak venture with Pakistani star Meera playing the female lead.
The actress called him to tell him that she, along with other actors and singers of Pakistan, wanted to take part in the programme scheduled for February 6 in Mumbai, Bhatt said.
“When India bleeds, Pakistan cries,” said Bhatt, …

Some women are determined to write their own fate. Like Helen of Troy or Marilyn Monre or Cleopatra or our very own Rani. Controversy dogs beauty and no one knows better than Vaneeza Ahmed. Her erratic lifestyle, her clandestine affairs, her phenomenal asking price, her politically correct mantra, her highly professional antics have all brought her more than her share of flak. When inquired she held head high… like all beautiful women do and took every query chin-up. And gave scathing replies of her own. In inimitable Vinny-style.
Rumours were rife …

With performances falling far short of their ambition, Bangladesh find themselves in a cricketing no man’s land as they approach their second consecutive World Cup.
Their dismal record of losing all but one of their 17 tests, many of them innings defeats inside three days, and three wins from 61 one-dayers means their superior opponents regard them as mere points in the bank.
A South African cricket official’s remarks at last year’s Champions Trophy perhaps reflects the attitude of big teams towards the 10th and newest entrant to the test club in …