Pakistani blockbuster hits China

During his first trip to Beijing, Bilal Lashari was a 27-year-old Pakistani traveling with his parents. It was the summer of 2008, when the Chinese capital was swept up in the euphoric atmosphere of the 29th Olympic Games.

Late one night, the family wandered onto a broad avenue in search of something to eat. They stumbled into a sea of people gathered beneath giant outdoor screens, cheering wildly as Chinese athletes competed live on television. Lashari remembered the energy as almost cinematic — strangers shouting in unison, waving flags. Caught up in the excitement, he found himself cheering as well.

"It was so emotional to watch so many people feeling proud of their country and celebrating together. And then, within just a few minutes, the street was completely cleared," Lashari recalls in an interview with China Daily, describing the Chinese public as "disciplined".

Now, 18 years later, Lashari has returned to Beijing for his fourth visit to China. This time, he arrived not as a tourist, but as the director of The Legend of Maula Jatt, Pakistan's highest-grossing blockbuster of all time.

The film was released across the Chinese mainland on Thursday, a date carrying symbolic significance as it marks the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Pakistan.

At the Beijing premiere on May 19, Pakistani Ambassador to China Khalil Hashmi said that the movie's release, coinciding with the anniversary, is a testament to the enduring ties and gives Chinese audiences a unique opportunity to experience the richness of Pakistani cinema.

He said that Pakistan boasts a vast film market and advanced cinema facilities, which not only provide a solid foundation for the production of high-quality content but also reflect a growing demand for diverse films. He added that he looks forward to seeing more films enter each other's markets.

A reboot of the 1979 Lollywood classic Maula Jatt, the 133-minute epic is set in medieval Punjab. The story follows Maula Jatt, a fierce prizefighter haunted by childhood trauma after a rival clan massacres his family. When he uncovers the truth about his lineage and reclaims his ancestral weapon, he embarks on a quest for revenge against Noori Natt, the clan's most feared warrior, ultimately leading to a deadly final confrontation.

Lashari says the original 1979 film has become deeply embedded in Pakistani popular culture. "The original movie was a huge hit in the 1970s. Since then, many films have been made around the character of Jatt," he adds.

Like Arnold Schwarzenegger's iconic "I'll be back" line in the sci-fi classic The Terminator, the characters of Jatt and Natt are well-known in Pakistan, evidenced by their most famous catchphrases repeated by audiences for decades. As a result, some of those lines have been re-created in the new movie with a few twists, adds Lashari.

"What interests me most is the dubbed Mandarin version," he says, explaining that he has been curious about whether the Chinese translation could preserve the power and charm of the original Punjabi dialogue.

The influence of Jatt also gave rise to what became known as "gandasa cinema", a hyper-violent Punjabi subgenre built around rural honor codes, bloody vendettas and the gandasa — an ax-like agricultural tool that became the defining weapon of many films during the 1980s and 1990s.

However, Pakistani audiences grew weary of the genre, much as American viewers drifted away from traditional Westerns. That decline, Lashari admits, has made rebooting the Jatt film a daunting proposition. Raising the budget for a large-scale reboot meant persuading investors that a genre once dismissed as outdated could still resonate with modern audiences.

"But we had a revival," he says."It's similar to Chinese kung fu films. They continue evolving and modernizing while still staying connected to tradition and their roots."