Thousands flocked to cinemas in Dhaka on Friday as Shah Rukh Khan’s blockbuster “Pathaan” hit the massive screens, the primary Bollywood film to get a full launch in Bangladesh in additional than half a century.

The action-packed spy thriller smashed field workplace data when it opened in India in January and the star has an enormous fan following world wide.

But Dhaka banned movies from its neighbour quickly after its independence in 1971, within the face of lobbying from native movie-makers, regardless of India backing it in its independence battle with Pakistan.

“I am so excited because a Hindi film is being released in Bangladesh for the first time,” stated Sazzad Hossain, 18, at a cineplex within the capital.

“We are all Shah Rukh Khan fans. For the first time I’ll watch Shah Rukh Khan on a giant screen.”

Bangladeshi cinemas have gone into steep decline, with poor-quality native movies unable to match Bollywood’s glitz and glamour or draw audiences, and the ageing Shakib Khan its solely bankable star.

Some film homes even switched to illegally displaying pornography to attempt to stay viable, however greater than 1,000 have shut their doorways within the final 20 years, lots of them to be transformed to purchasing centres or flats.

At the Modhumita Cinema Hall, as soon as Dhaka’s most luxurious film theatre, heroin addicts sat outdoors this week in entrance of posters for Jinn, a newly launched Bangladeshi film.

“I haven’t seen such a poor crowd in many years,” stated one theatre worker. “Only a few rows have been filled up. Nobody watches these local art movies or films with poor storylines.”

Cinemas was a mainstay of Bangladeshi social life.

“This hall was like a great meeting place of the Old Dhaka community,” Pradip Narayan instructed AFP on the Manoshi Complex, a 100-year-old film theatre become a market in 2017.

“Women used to come in the night to watch films here. Our mothers and sisters from neighbouring areas would come here, and when the show ended at midnight or 12:30 at night, it looked like a fair here.

“A girl even gave beginning to a baby on this cinema corridor. Such was the craze for films again then.”

Authorities attempted to lift the ban on Indian movies in 2015 when two Bollywood hits — “Wanted” and “The Three Idiots” — were screened, but protests by local movie stars forced theatres to stop the shows.

The government finally issued a decree last month allowing the import of 10 movies a year from India or South Asian nations.

“In Pakistan the variety of cinemas got here all the way down to 30-35 as soon as. Then they allowed importing Indian Hindi movies,” said information minister Hasan Mahmud.

“The variety of cinemas has since risen to about 1,200 and the usual of Pakistani movies additionally improved.”

“Pathaan” was released in 41 theatres across the country and many shows in the capital were already sold out, said distributor Anonno Mamun.

Allowing the screening of Bollywood movies would prove to be a “game-changer”, he told AFP. “Everyone loves Hindi films right here. Many additionally love southern Indian films,” he said.

The Modhumita cinema’s owner Mohammed Iftekharuddin — a former president of the Bangladesh Motion Picture Exhibitors Association — is hoping for a business turnaround.

“I believe 200-300 extra cinema halls will reopen after this,” he said.

“Monopoly destroys enterprise. When there may be competitors, there will probably be enterprise.”

But Bangladeshi filmmakers are alarmed at the prospect, with some threatening to protest by wearing white shrouds of death to symbolise the demise of the local industry.

“Don’t they know in regards to the Nepalese movie business?” asked director Khijir Hayat Khan.

“Don’t they see that the Mexican movie business was destroyed after opening the market (to Hollywood’s merchandise)?”

Nonetheless, there is undoubtedly unsatisfied demand among audiences.

Forest department official Raj Ahmed, 30, travelled 250 kilometres (155 miles) from Khulna in southern Bangladesh to see “Pathaan”, but could not secure a ticket.

“I really feel very dangerous,” he said. “I used to be ready for a lot of days to look at Shah Rukh Khan on an enormous display screen.”