Pakistan - News and Discussion 6

[Naresh]

<b>Filmmakers star in Bangkok payment controversy</b>

KARACHI: Some Pakistani film producers, especially Karachi-based ones, have been facing difficulties in engaging Bangkok-based postproduction houses that are reportedly refusing to entertain their work because of a controversy involving the failure of payments.

Pakistan Film Producers Association Chairman Saeed Rizvi has accused Mubashir Luqman, the producer and director of ‘Pehla Pehla Pyar’, of failing to pay Technicolor (Thailand) Limited, a Bangkok-based postproduction house. For his part though, Luqman has denied the charges and instead accused the Thai-based laboratory of failing to honour a previous commitment.

According to a letter from Technicolor studios received by Daily Times from Rizvi, Mubashir Luqman Films failed to clear outstanding dues worth close to $80,000. In the “notice of non-payment” that Rizvi’s office received, Technicolor has said that the negatives of the movie are still with them in their storage. The letter also said that the amount of ‘$79,711.41’ should be cleared otherwise the company will take legal action against Mubashir Luqman films. The letter is dated April 17, 2006 and has warned that legal action will be proceeded with if the dues were not cleared by April 28, 2006 at 5:00 p.m.

“Further, we will begin to charge you storage costs for your negatives at $500 per month from the time the first notice of completion of work until such time as payment is made and the negatives are collected from us,” the letter stated, and added that the company will dispose of the negatives if they are not collected by May 1, 2006. The letter has been addressed by Dusit Kananond, senior director sales and marketing.

When asked about this correspondence, Luqman said that he was willing to clear up any misunderstandings, provided the lab contacted him. “Initially I had approached Cinecolor laboratories for the online editing of my movie,” Luqman explained to Daily Times. “The lab was later bought by Technicolor, which revised the rates that I had accepted with Cinecolor. Also, the new owners misplaced the sound of my movie, landing it in a fix. I had to call all the actors and dub the movie in Lahore at Farooq Studios all over again.”

<b>Rizvi claimed that Pakistani producer Syed Noor had to approach an Indian postproduction house after the Thai authorities refused to entertain him for the postproduction work for his movie ‘Majajan’. In response to this, Luqman refuted Rizvi’s claims, saying that major filmmakers such as Shoaib Mansoor, Ejaz Bajwa and Shehzad Rafiq were all having their movies post-edited in Mumbai, “because the price there is 50 percent less than that of Bangkok”.</b>

Luqman said that Technicolor’s parent organisation was Thompson CSS and he would be approaching them to settle the problem. “I am sure that they have not informed Thompson. I will be approaching them with my complaint that they went back on their earlier commitment,” he said.

Ataullah Farooqui, whose company, Imaging Technologies, represents ‘Technicolor’ confirmed the controversy and said that Luqman had yet to clear his dues with the parent company. “I received at my office the legal notice which I had to distribute but the date had passed by the time I got it. I will be travelling to Bangkok to clear things up for my part, but there is no solution except for Luqman clearing his dues,” he said.

<b>“But this is quickly becoming a community of cheats <!--emo&:flush--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/Flush.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='Flush.gif' /><!--endemo--> because even Ajab Gul has yet to clear his dues amounting to $18,000 for his movie ‘Kyoun tum say hay itna pyar’ with the same studios,” Farooqui told Daily Times. “Ajab was the man in charge in Bangkok but when it came to make the payments he backed away saying that he was only the director.” Farooqui claimed that the producer for the movie was Squib Khan he had not cleared their dues either. When contacted, Ajab Gul told Daily Times that the dues had been cleared on his part and the studio in Bangkok should be contacted for the matter.</b>

Cheers <!--emo&:beer--><img src='style_emoticons/<#EMO_DIR#>/cheers.gif' border='0' style='vertical-align:middle' alt='cheers.gif' /><!--endemo-->