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Updated: Jan 22, 2017 09:17 IST

Pakistan’s film industry has welcomed the Indian government’s move to issue visas to Pakistani actors Adnan Siddiqui and Sajal Ali on Saturday.

The two actors will shoot for Sridevi-starrer Mom. Siddiqui is likely to play Sridevi’s husband, while Sajal Ali will play her daughter.

“Hopefully this will improve the relation between the two countries,” film producer Mehmood Mandviwala told the reporters in Pakistan.

Exhibitors are also hopeful that the move would give the ground to the Pakistan cinema owners lift the self-imposed ban on Indian movies.

Ever since Indo-Pakistan relations deteriorated following cross-border firing, Pakistani artists have been forced to leave India. In retaliation, the Pakistan cinema exhibitors stopped exhibiting Indian movies in the country in solidarity with the actors.

The decision, however, proved costly. Film critic Hasan Zaidi recently told a Pakistan daily that the bulk of revenue for local cinema came from Indian movies. “Other than that the collections from Pakistan and Western movies is negligible.”