Hit by growing sales of pirated Indian movies, Pakistan's film industry is making a strong bid to make inroads into cinemas on this side of the border.

Pakistan's filmmakers are also looking forward to increased cooperation with their Indian counterparts taking advantage of the peace dividend between the two countries.

"It's really ridiculous that although India and Pakistan play cricket with each other and talk about increased cultural exchanges, we can't trade in movies," said Pakistani film producer Irfan Malik.

"Films can really be one of the most important pillars in bridging the differences between the two countries," tells Malik, who is here to participate in an entertainment industry seminar.

"We believe there is a good market for Pakistan-made films in India, especially in Punjab. But there is really no encouragement from authorities on both sides to help us tap this potential."

According to the Pakistani film industry veteran, screening of movies made in his country in Indian cinema halls would greatly lift the sagging fortunes of the Lahore-based business, popularly known as Lollywood.

Pakistan's once money-churning film industry produces a meagre 30 films a year down from an average of 100 a few years ago. Most of the films fail to generate any revenues for their makers.

Malik says a large number of Pakistan's cinema halls have closed down in recent years and many more are likely to wind up in the months ahead as viewers shun locally produced films in favour of foreign productions.

In comparison, the Indian film industry -- dominated by the prolific Hindi cinema production factory or Bollywood -- is the largest in the world that produces almost 1,000 movies annually.

Apart from the growing international success of Indian-themed films like "Monsoon Wedding", "Bend it like Beckham", and "Bride and Prejudice", global curiosity about Bollywood is on the rise.

The Indian film industry is expected to grow annually at 16 percent to cross the Rs.100-billion mark by 2007 and reach Rs.143 billion in 2010, says management consultancy firm KPMG.

Although the Indian movies are not screened in Pakistan due to Islamabad's 40-year-old ban, almost all Bollywood productions find their into the country in the form of videotapes or compact discs as soon as soon as they are released here.

"Bollywood films are hugely popular in Pakistan because of their rich content and production techniques. We can't match with them even on our home turfs due to lack of financial support and marketing facilities," said Malik.

"Despite this, we are lobbying very hard with the Pakistani authorities to lift the ban on Indian films. This would at least help bring the audience back into the cinema halls.

"But the Indian film industry and authorities should also help us market our films here. We are in favour of complete borderless trade in movies between the two countries," he added.

Malik said he was in talks with leading Bollywood producer Yash Chopra and others to sell the screening rights for his recently shot movie "Tere Bina Jiya Na Jaye" in the local market.

"We have used leading Indian playback singer Sonu Nigam in the film. We are exploring the possibility of taking this forward and use more and more Indian artists in Pakistani films as the Indian filmmakers are already doing."

Many of the Pakistani filmmakers have also started to queue up outside the Indian studios to take advantage of the country's prowess in the field of technology and animation for post-production works.