• Maula Jatt Film Wins 2 Awards at Jackie Chan Film Fest in China

• Pakistani cinema took centre stage on one of Asia’s biggest platforms for action film this month, as The Legend of Maula Jatt walked away with two major honours at the closing ceremony of the 7th Jackie Chan International Action Film Week in Harbin, China.

• Cinema is increasingly functioning as a quiet but effective tool of cultural diplomacy between the Pakistan and China.

By: Muhammad Arif, Editor NSN.Asia

Beijing: Director Bilal Lashari’s blockbuster received the Special Jury Award and the Best Art Direction Award, standing alongside international titles such as Mortal Kombat 2 and The Furious in a lineup the festival itself described as one of the strongest in its history. The film shared the Special Jury Award with Kazakhstan’s Racketeer 3, while the art direction honour recognised production designers Nimsah Abbasi and Hamza Bajwa for the striking visual world they built for the film.

Lashari accepted the awards on an open-air stage in pouring rain, an experience he later described on Instagram as one he could barely believe. “Two awards, in the pouring rain, on a stage with Jackie Chan’s name on it,” he wrote, recalling that he was drenched by the time he reached the microphone, with a stranger stepping in to hold an umbrella over him. For a filmmaker who grew up watching Jackie Chan’s movies, receiving recognition — and personal congratulations — from the action legend himself was, in his words, something he had never imagined when work on the film began.

The Harbin win comes on the heels of an equally emotional moment for the team earlier this year, when The Legend of Maula Jatt opened in Chinese cinemas around the 75th anniversary of diplomatic relations between China and Pakistan. Lashari has spoken about how different that experience was from the film’s reception back home. In Pakistan, he has said, the love for the film is tied up with its stars, its long-awaited release, and years of anticipation — so much so that the director can feel like he disappears inside it all. In Beijing, none of that context existed. Audiences and press came in knowing nothing about the cast or the industry behind it, and what came back, he said, was something purer: recognition for the work itself.

That contrast is central to why the film’s journey in China has taken on meaning well beyond box-office numbers or trophies. As Lashari put it after the Beijing premiere, no streaming platform or algorithm can replicate what a darkened cinema hall does — strangers sitting together, watching a story unfold. It is a reminder, he said, of why cinema still matters in an age of endless scrolling.

At the Harbin ceremony, Lashari made a point of honouring those who couldn’t share the stage with him, particularly producer Ammara Hikmat, who was unable to attend. “We felt your absence up there,” he told her, noting that her work runs through every frame Chinese audiences have watched. He closed his remarks by thanking the film’s cast and crew, and dedicating the win to Pakistan.

Beyond the individual honours, the film’s back-to-back milestones in China — a theatrical release timed to a landmark diplomatic anniversary, followed by recognition at one of the region’s premier action-film festivals — point to something larger taking shape. Cinema is increasingly functioning as a quiet but effective tool of cultural diplomacy between the two countries, offering audiences a shared emotional experience that formal exchanges rarely achieve. A Pakistani story, told in Punjabi, resonating with Chinese audiences and juries who had no prior connection to its cast or its decade-long production history, suggests that shared screens can build familiarity and goodwill in ways that outlast a single box-office run.

For Lashari, who has spent years associated with a single film, the Harbin stage marked something of a full-circle moment: an action epic rooted in Punjab’s folklore, standing shoulder to shoulder with global action cinema, on a stage bearing the name of one of the genre’s most iconic figures. As cultural and cinematic ties between China and Pakistan continue to deepen, The Legend of Maula Jatt has emerged as one of the clearest examples yet of Pakistani film finding — and holding — an international audience.