United Producers Associations: Taking The Next Step For The Future Of The Film Industry

KARACHI: The United Producers Associations held it’s Annual General Meeting (AGM) 2017-2018 in Karachi at the Royal Rodale on the 28th of September 2018. (UPA) United Producers Associations is a trade association that represents the commercial interests of Pakistan’s independent television, film, digital and other media professionals. UPA is an association/organization that supports its members with their legal and business affairs, also works on a wide range of services and campaign work.

UPA is established to help the independent production sectors of Pakistan to grow internally and internationally. The organization works for the rights of producers, actors directors, and other media members the goal is to create equal and fair opportunities so that independent production houses are given the same chances based on their work and on their views.

The event was hosted by the General Secretary of UPA Mr. Ismail Jilani who is the Director of the feature film Chambaili. Amongst many famous personalities in the media industry actors, producers and actresses were present at the event, the General Executive Council of SOUTH and NORTH was present at the meeting via Skype conference.

The event covered up the issues that are faced by the people in the media agencies, disputes between actors and producers or producers and directors and vis verse, they also highlighted the disputes that are caused by the agencies and the payments that are stopped and the awareness of payment notice that should be sent out by the producers, actors to the companies they are working for  the working media people and how they can overcome such a problem, the meeting stated the stats that showed their growth throughout the year and their achievements and success stories of their members and media outlets that have solved disputes through their help.

The Meeting talked about the Committees that are formed to cover up issues and the members were given the opportunities to chose the committee they want to help work with, it was met with a positive response from its members.

There were speeches given by the GEC (General Executive Council) members such as Barkat Sidiki and Aijaz Aslam, other important members of the committee Sir. Mubashir Imran the Chairman of UPA and Samina Ahmed the founding member of UPA also addressed the meeting, they talked about the steps the organization is taking to resolve the issues between the producers and PEMRA, the use of Foreign Content as fillers by big industries, the presentation also included the need to create our own content and the emphasis on setting the market trend, the prime time 7pm-11pm should only feature Pakistani Content, also emphasised on the Code of Conduct that needs to be put out by the PEMRA for the producers so they know what not to put in their content. At the end of the conference, refreshments were served so that the members of the committee can discuss and talk over matters.

We would like to thank our hosts for the day Miss. Urooj Siddiqui (Event Manager) and Miss. Ammara (Assitant Manager) for being absolutely accommodating to our wants and needs. For more details, you can visit their website UPA or their Twitter account