LAHORE Leading film director Sangeeta will shoot the highest-budget Urdu feature film ever produced by the local film industry with Pakistani, Indian and British actors.

“Glasgow-based White Rose Productions will produce the film with an unlimited budget,” Sangeeta told a press conference at Evernew Studios on Wednesday.

The film will be shot in England and its songs in Holland and France. The cast includes actors from Pakistan, a few from England and two from India.

“I am yet to select the Pakistani cast. I would prefer to cast a performer rather then somebody who has market value, which could give me disciplinary problems. You people will have the names of the entire cast, once it is finalized,” she said.

Sangeeta said that the producer was born in Pakistan and raised in Glasgow, but wouldn’t give his name.

The film will have a “bold and different subject”, Sangeeta said. “It will feature social and women’s issues. It will also highlight the problems faced by Asians in England. But I assure you it will be a bold subject,” she said.

“I have always touched bold issues which are partly feminist. My Urdu films always have something to offer to women. I am a woman and I understand them. Violence has no appeal for women,” she said.

Asked about the level of bare skin in her films, she said: “Yes, I expose women because I like naked women. Her figure and her sensuality appeal to my aesthetics.”

“The entire laboratory work will be done in England,” she said. “Pakistani singers will sing all the songs but the recording and related work will be done in Hong Kong.” The film will be released in Dubai, London, the USA, Canada and Europe.

Asked whether she thought a Pakistani film could attract a large audience, she said: “A good film will always attract an audience. My film Muthi Bhar Chawal and a couple of others attracted audiences in Canada and the USA. The cinema halls were jam packed and most of the audience consisted of Sikhs and Hindus.”

Asked whether she was in favour of joint-productions between India and Pakistan, she said yes, because it would improve the quality of Pakistani films.

Asked why the Pakistani film industry was going through such a slump, she said it was because the audience had been spoiled by the high quality of Indian films.

“Indian films exposed us. Hindi film in India are produced with very big budgets. Pakistanis spend less than half that.”

She said what little niche Lollywood had left was taken away by cable television. She said not only were Indian television channels based on Indian cinema, but Pakistani networks were as well.

Sangeeta said in Spain, only Spanish television stations were allowed to show programmes. She said there were no Pakistani channels in India. “I stayed in India for two nights and I did not find a Pakistani channel,” she said.

The other big reason behind the decline of Pakistani cinema was the censor policy. “We have lots of restrictions from our censor board. We cannot expose the wrongdoings of a politician or a policeman. We have to portray them as good people.”

Sangeeta said Indian films start with images of Hindu rituals, while the censors in Pakistan did not allow a film to start with Bismillah.

However, she was hopeful that when the quality of films improves, the crowds would come back.