Sachal Studios: Take Five

I heard this on Radio 6 during the week.

An old NPR article tells the story of Sachal Studios. Lahore, where its players come from, once had a thriving film industry - Lollywood - and many musicians made a good living from it.

Then, amid a period of religious conservatism, the film studios closed down, leaving the musicians without any work.

But they found a saviour:

Izzat Majeed made his money overseas, in finance. But he was born in Lahore in 1950, remembers Lollywood's heyday and greatly admires its musicians.

"It was a brotherhood of great musicians," Majeed says. "I call them great because they are great and they lost it. They lost the avenue. They lost the money. They lost the creativity."

Majeed decided to rekindle that creativity by building a new studio complex in Lahore - and reuniting these men to form the Sachal Studios Orchestra.