Originally posted by: starstruckk
What kabeera and I are indicating is that Pakistani fans across the world are not as extremely attached or passionate about their stars as much as Indians are with theirs. How many Fawad fans do you know who are Pakistani..that went crazy over ADHM JUST to support Fawad? A few arguably, but nothing in extraordinary numbers. Mahira Khan is a big Pakistani star..but none of her Pakistani movies have done extraordinary business amongst Pakistani audiences within Pakistan or overseas. I remember her film Bin Roye releasing at a theater in Times Square, in NY (many Pakistanis here)..but, people barely came to watch her movie JUST because she was in it. It doesn't work that way with us..at least not yet. Of course your point that the Pakistani film industry isn't as big as Bollywood's is very true..but I don't think it refutes the argument that generally speaking, Pakistanis aren't as passionate about going above and beyond supporting their favorite celebs on a day to day basis..be it in whatever way. It's a different culture as kabeera mentioned.
So going back to my orginal point..to suggest that Fawad fans outside of India which would primarily be Pakistanis..brought in the big millions is silly. Yes, his presence was a contributing factor to bringing in his fans, Pakistani or not.. but definitely not as significant as some here are trying to imply. Fawad is a great performer..he has also achieved his share of popularity very quickly over the past few years...but he does not have a worldwide fandom as big as Ranbir, at least not yet. Dare I say it, there may be more Pakistanis who are Ranbir fans than Fawad fans..and that may also be because Fawad is not as recognized for his work as much as Ranbir is..because the latter is an out and out movie star from a huge film industry. The outreach which Ranbir has or has had is inevitably unmatched. This takes away nothing from Fawad's talent or popularity as some would like to think..it is what it is as of now.
Coming from Pakistan, knowing its culture since childhood, I would agree with each and every word of you. We don't have stars here we dont put them on pedestal. In fact lots of stars attained their celebrity status from India and then got recognition in Pakistan (its harsh fact actually). Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan, Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, Atif Aslam and even Imran Khan , Shahid Afridi got their star status when India started treating them as stars and worshiped them. No one is denying the fact that they are hugely talented but thats one complaint our celebrities constantly make. The curious case of Hina Rabbani Khar is one of such incidents. We treat them as normal persons. If it may not offend anyone then may I state that Idol worshiping is not allowed in Islam and is one of the biggest reasons why we dont have crazy fan following here (again I mean no offense to any religion).
On the other hand, common people follow BW here and when they see a person is projected like a star with some magnetic aura around them, they start following them and consider them as stars. Fawad actually had a very good fan following in Pakistan but now with all what happened I have heard people saying that he deserved that treatment from India. And it will be difficult for him to enjoy that sort of following again (at least in Pakistan). Had he managed his time in doing Pakistani projects in parallel people would have received him with open arms. Also, he didn't make it clear that he took a stand for Pakistan, it seems like he is thrown out of India, and has lost his respect among Pakistanis.
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