Bollywood delegation to visit Pakistan ov

A delegation of Bollywood personalities is to travel to Pakistan to discuss a range of issues including a ban on the making of movies that spread hatred between the two nations, producer P.D. Mehra said, according to a foreign news agency.

The delegation, comprising producer-director Rakesh Roshan and actors Jeetendra, Ranjeet, Prem Chopra and Pariksh*t Sahani, will visit Lahore during the Basant (spring) festival in March.

"Our programme will be for four days in which we will meet many film celebrities of Pakistan and also Prime Minister Zafarulla Jamali," said Mehra, who is also the chief promoter of the Pakistan India Performance of Art Forum, an association founded to promote peace between the two nuclear rivals. "Why should film personalities of the two get left behind in negotiations when both countries are now going to play cricket or when politicans on both sides are in talks?"

Other contentious issues would also be raised, Mehra told. "We will also ask them to lift a ban on screening Indian films in Pakistan and to stop the piracy of our films there," he said.

Indian films have been banned in Pakistan since the 1960s after the two countries went to war and due to the increased threat Indian films posed to Pakistan's own industry, ollywood. "The main aim is however to make peace. We have made enough hate films against each other in the last 15 years. It is now time to make films with good subjects and promote peace," Mehra said. The Pakistan India Performance of Art Forum is a joint delegation of Indian and Pakistan producers and directors established 15 years ago to promote peace between the two countries.