Hello! magazine is to launch a Pakistan edition next week.
The magazine’s owners have targeted a country with an ever-increasing appetite for the glitz and glamour of Bollywood, the super-rich and sporting superstars.
Its publisher, Zahraa Saifullah, said she wanted to promote a more positive image of a country more usually associated with negative press. "The heart of our culture is vibrant, effusive and cosmopolitan," she said in a publisher's note announcing the new venture. "It is unfortunate that, of late, Pakistan's image has been dulled by the shadow of bad press. But this is not a reality for Pakistanis, who feel misrepresented by the ubiquitous fire and brimstone of media hype."
Saifullah instead promises what the rest of the world has long enjoyed from the franchise magazine which began life as the Spanish publication, Hola! "We now have fashion weeks, Oscar nods, and celebs that flourish internationally," she said.
According to the Telegraph Online details of the first edition of the monthly publication, due out on Monday, are still under wraps but the front page of the dummy run features an interview with Nargis Fakhri, a model who recently made her Bollywood debut in the box-office hit film Rockstar.
