This article is about the Urdu, Pashto, and Punjabi film industry. For the entire film culture of Pakistan, seeCinema of Pakistan. For the Punjabi film industry in India, seePunjabi cinema.
This article needs to beupdated. Please help update this article to reflect recent events or newly available information.(July 2025)
According to several media sources, the word "Lollywood" is aportmanteau of "Lahore" and "Hollywood", coined in 1989 byGlamour magazine gossip columnist Saleem Nasir, and is usually used comparatively with respect to other film industries inSouth Asian cinema.
^"Goonda raj".The Express Tribune. 25 November 2012. Retrieved20 February 2022.The real-life characters behind the goonda and gandasa era of Lollywood... The scene is from the 1979 Lollywood film Wehshi Gujjar. On the face of it, to any modern critic of the Punjabi film industry, the story follows the 'tried-and-tested' Punjabi film formula: honour, bharaks (grandiose boasting), machismo and violence.
^"Lollywood music special: Pakistani star Sultan Rahi like never before in 'Jasoos'".Scroll.in. 6 May 2017. Retrieved20 February 2022.Though from an Urdu-speaking Indian immigrant background, Rahi did most of his acting in Punjabi films. Indeed, the whole genre of so-called gandasa (long-handled axe) movies, which has dominated Punjabi filmdom since the late '70s, is built almost entirely upon the face and voice of Sultan Rahi.
