Bollywood ordered to write reconciliation into the script
Not so long ago, there was one sure way to have a big box office hit in India: produce a film that demonised neighbouring Pakistan as a land of bloodthirsty terrorists or Islamic chauvinists.
Mumbai's film factory, known as Bollywood, churned out film after film that trawled a deep distrust that has taken the two countries to outright war three times in 56 years of independence.
Jingoistic scripts that mirrored the political rhetoric of the day brought one side's version of the tragedy of war-torn Kashmir to cinema screens, a cheap and popular form of entertainment in India.
The bloody history of Partition in 1947, when millions died in orgies of killing as Muslims headed west to the new state of Pakistan and Hindus headed east, was rewritten time and again.
But it appears the days of bloody caricature are over. Filmmakers and movie stars from the two countries are now co-operating rather than confronting and, in the process, bolstering a peace process initiated by India's former prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee last April, and eventually favourably received by Pakistan's ruler, President Pervez Musharraf.
Since then, the first ceasefire in 14 years has taken hold in Kashmir, diplomats have begun to talk and the Indian cricket team has completed a successful and peaceful tour of Pakistan. Now the film industry is doing its bit, reacting to calls from both nations' leaders to halt the flow of hate movies.