MIKE PESCA: Several months ago, OTM reported on a war movie from India, Line of Control. The film flopped. Part of the reason was that the anti-Pakistan bias in the film didn't sit well with audiences at a time when relations between India and Pakistan are actually improving. In the last few months, a stream of Pakistani film stars, musicians and directors have been hopping over to Mumbai, the center of India's film industry, but it's not just the desire for good relations between the nuclear neighbors that's bringing Pakistani artists across the border. It's also the knowledge that the Pakistani film industry, dubbed Lollywood because of its base in the City of Lahore, is dying, if not already dead. Miranda Kennedy reports from Lahore on Pakistan's hopes for bringing its cinema back to life. [MUSIC FROM MEERA FILM PLAYS]

MIRANDA KENNEDY: Meera is one of Lollywood's highest paid actresses. At the wise old age of 24, she's already made almost 60 Lollywood films. [MUSIC UP] This one is a love story with some ten song and dance numbers. The lip synching is off and the color is bad, but Meera manages to execute some very sexy love scenes while fully clothed. Meera's just started working on her first Bollywood production, which she's shooting in Bombay, with Indian director Mahesh Bhatt.

MEERA: I just want to contribute to Pakistan and India for the betterment and for the peace. We are together. I don't want to belong to one industry. I just want to do international work. I want to be recognized as a Pakistani actress, India and Hollywood. Everywhere.

MIRANDA KENNEDY: Meera certainly won't get the international recognition she longs for by acting in Pakistani films. Lollywood only produces about 40 films a year, and it has no international audience. [LAHORE STREET NOISE] In the last decade, more than a thousand movie theaters have closed down in Pakistan. Still, in some areas, the streets are hung with hand-drawn movie posters, usually featuring women with big bosoms and blood dripping from their mouths. Movie-going is now restricted to men of the lower classes in city centers. Everyone else watches pirated DVDs of well-made Bollywood films in the safety and comfort of their own homes. They might as well, since the only things that differentiate Pakistani from Indian films these days is that they're not as well-made, and because of Pakistani censor board rules, they don't show drinking or nudity.

MAN: The boards are catering for masses--

MIRANDA KENNEDY: Faizan Peerzada is a Lahore-based filmmaker.

FAIZAN PEERZADA: Whether it's love or action, it's done the same way. The only difference that I see in Bollywood films is that they have more funds. They spend more money. They have better equipment, and they have been supporting an academy, so they get some training. They're able to make a good-looking film. Out here in Pakistan, the film industry had been left on its own.

MIRANDA KENNEDY: Before India's partition in 1947, both Bombay and Lahore were centers of Indian cinema. After Pakistan's creation, Lahore's film industry struggled to distinguish itself from Bombay's, but in the '60s and '70s, Pakistan's Islamist leaders began actively discouraging cinema. Military dictator Zia ul Haq forced most Lahore studios to close down. Bollywood has never recovered. To film producer, Shajjad Gul, it's a tragedy that Pakistani film hasn't succeeded in developing an identity of its own, unlike, say, Iranian cinema which developed a distinctive voice under an oppressive political regime.

SHAJJAD GUL: I think cinema is an identity of a country. It's a roaming ambassador of a country, which today Pakistan does not have.

MIRANDA KENNEDY: Shajjad's father founded Evernew film studios before partition, which soon became one of Pakistan's top studios. But in the last decade, in order to survive, Shajjad has had to turn to TV production. He's not alone. His industry colleagues now do everything from advertising soap to running a circus to make money.

SHAJJAD GUL: We consider ourselves filmmakers, but the existing situation has really forced us to just wait see what is in the offing, and we are very desperately wanting to open trade with India. I personally feel it's the only savior for Pakistani cinema today.

MIRANDA KENNEDY: In 1962, the Pakistan Film Producers Association asked the government to ban Indian films in Pakistan, which they were only too happy to do. Now, some 40 years later, the association has just asked Pakistan to repeal the ban. They say Pakistani theaters can't stay afloat by showing third-rate Pakistani films. They want to make it legal to screen Indian films and to co-produce films with Bollywood. But now, all Lollywood can do is wait for the Pakistani government to make up its mind. [HALL ROAD SHOPS WITH BOLLYWOOD MUSIC] Here, on Lahore's Hall Road, you can find pirated software for 30 cents, and DVDs of Bollywood films for not much more. The very day of a Lollywood release, a pirated copy of the film will run on one of Pakistan's domestic cable channels. Piracy has delivered another crushing blow to Pakistan's whimpering film industry. Now, it's up to its old enemy, India, to save it. Now, that sounds like the makings of a good Bollywood film. For On the Media, I'm Miranda Kennedy, in Lahore. [THEME MUSIC]

MIKE PESCA: And that's it for this week's show. On the Media was directed by Katya Rogers and produced by Megan Ryan, Tony Field and Derek John. Dylan Keefe is our technical director and Jennifer Munson our engineer. We had help from Anne Kossef and Mike Vuolo, and editing help from Sharon Ball. Our webmaster is Amy Pearl. Arun Rath is senior producer and Dean Cappello our executive producer. Bassist/composer Ben Allison wrote our theme. Brooke Gladstone is managing editor when she's not on vacation. Bob Garfield is still on vacation, even when he's not on vacation. Both of them will be back here next week, and they'll be joined by special guest star Agnes Moorehead as Andorra. This is On the Media, from NPR. I'm Mike Pesca. [MUSIC TAG]