Is the drama industry moving forward, or there is a standstill? BOLD takes on board the views of industry stakeholders to find out the answer.

I am not an astrologer who would tell the future by reading the movements of the planets and stars. However, besides being an entertainment journalist who critically analyses TV serials and films and keeps a vigilant eye on developments in the showbiz world,, I also tend to watch TV to entertain myself just like any other TV viewer does.

“Mai us se shadi nahi karna chahti”, “Isko toh maza mai chakhao gi”, “Kia yahi hai meri qismat?” and the rest of the commonplace lines fall into my ears whenever I switch from one TV channel to the next. This harks back to my childhood days in the early 1990s when there was a craze for Indian soaps in Pakistan. There were a couple of TV channels in Pakistan such as PTV and STN (formerly known as NTN) and as children, we would only switch to these channels for cartoons or ‘Ainak Wala Jin,’ the children’s favourite show. As I grew up I never knew what the Pakistani drama industry was making as there was a handful of famous TV serials with such outmoded narratives of the past that only elders like my parents could better understand. Yet, I remembered the names of Indian dramas by heart and would tune in to the Indian channels on exact time to watch ‘Kahin Kisi Roz’, ‘Kasauti Zindagi Ki’ and many others. There was a huge variety of dancing shows and a lot more ‘entertainment’ on Indian channels, as compared to what Pakistani TV channels had to offer round the clock.

Now I realise that was just fluff provided in the name of entertainment. However, the question arises as to why my generation was excitedly adamant about watching those stupid serials through which we never learned or gained anything positive? That was mainly because of the appealing visuals, relatability and connection. You got it right, connection! Since the Indian TV serials were, in fact, damaging our own culture, they were later banned in Pakistan, and that was the opportune time when the TV production houses in Pakistan were geared up to seize the opportunity by producing such megahit TV serials as Zindagi Gulzar Hai, Humsafar, and countless others.

Nonetheless, Pakistan’s TV drama industry was gradually established and came to fruition some five years back. Hitherto, there was not much creativity or interesting plots in TV serials, but lacklustre, monotonous and repetitive tales. While the cinema industry was in the ‘reviving’ phase, the drama industry was getting a larger audience, competing with itself every year and today’s drama industry is far ahead of those years when it was offering the fluff, tedious and meaningless content. Where the drama industry is heading now and what future it holds for the viewers are two of the questions that were asked to the crème de la crème of the industry.

To know about how TV producers tend to look at their own drama productions, I reached out to Abdullah Seja, who is a producer as well as CEO of Idream Entertainment. Seja is also the youngest TV producer, making TV serials that are ruling the TRP charts. One can see a lot more maturity in the visuals, content and production design of his serials, when compared to his previous endeavours.

“There is always a thin line between art and a commercial TV drama. I would make dramas that the audience wants to watch. The success and failure of a story, good or bad, is determined by the viewers’ choice. Relatability to the target audience is another aspect that is under consideration by any production house. When it specifically comes to my production house, we aim at providing pure entertainment. We are the only production house that has produced a drama serial on AIDS, an issue that has many myths around it and is not even talked about in the open. Thus, there is less awareness and through the drama, we successfully reached the masses to deliver a story of a lifetime.”

The producer is quite optimistic about delivering quality content in 2023 as well, aiming to produce high-budgeted serials that will be much more than family masala and will revolve around love stories, taboos, and a lot more.

Abdullah believes the relevance of his TV serials with people is all that matters. “I have come across a lot of women who have been stalked or trapped just like Saba Qamar is in the drama serial ‘Fraud.’ So there are real stories like ‘Tinder Swindlers’ or ‘YOU’ that you happen to watch on Netflix.”

However, there are a handful of TV serials that are based on both reality and quality, but there are still a few or maybe most of the serials having run-of-the-mill plots, insipid stories, and even repetitive faces. Syed Jibran, a seasoned TV and film actor, gets brutally honest and shares his thoughts.

“If I end up signing a run-of-the-mill project, the only reason would be financial. I still do so as I already mentioned. If I am doing a drama that has nothing to offer in terms of novelty, social message, or anything else except the routine masala stuff, then you can bet that I am being paid really well.”

The Ghabrana Nahi Hai actor also sheds light upon the positive aspects of dramas and says that the future of the drama industry has always been bright and prosperous. “Yes, the speed at which we can progress is in our hands, but ironically due to restraints at many junctions, it is considerably a slow process. The reason why we are not getting many different subject-oriented TV serials is because of the channel’s demand to keep making the routine stuff, as somehow it still attracts a large number of viewers. We do are getting different scripts but, again, the ratio is still far less than it should be.”

Sami Khan has also been giving back-to-back hit serials and recently two of his characters, Dawood and Vasay, are worth mentioning here. The actor explained how is it for him to take up roles which are way less than his stature and what makes him sign run-of-the-mill scripts. “The art is to make a place for yourself in situations that are run-of-the-mill, I try my best to do justice to my craft in every play I sign, be it a normal script or an extraordinary one. I give my best to my character and those attached to it, and that’s why the rest doesn’t matter at least to me. If the audience is relating to these plays, nothing can be done except give them different kinds of plays so their taste varies.”

Samina Ahmed, a veteran actress, said that all dramas are not the same. “Not all serials are showing family politics and fights, there are good dramas like Sang-e-Mah, Bakhtawar, and Parizaad. Unfortunately or fortunately, I am not among those who look at the negative side. I feel it has become a national habit to criticise everything without delving deeper into it. Having said that, we surly need diversity and new stories and I observe this change whenever I watch a drama or read a script.”

The actress said that we have high expectations from TV channels which sometimes bring disappointment. “We expect everything in a drama that we see on OTT platforms and movies and that is not possible for now as we need other platforms to show diverse work. I have always been positive about the industry and I am very much hopeful that there will be betterment in the future.”

When I go to watch a movie and find it failing at the box office that too because of failed marketing strategies and planning, I wonder how smartly our TV channels market their dramas by releasing OSTs which has become another big element that contributes to the success of dramas.

“OSTs play a significant role in a TV serial’s success, keeping the audience intact until the drama goes on air. Honestly speaking, about 20 to 30 per cent of emotions are delivered and driven by music and here again, we bring those singers on board who enjoy a huge following and whose voice people want to listen to. Later comes the game of how well a drama is produced and directed and is also visually pleasing, and this is where the ball goes in the viewers’ court. In sum, this is how the chain continues.” Abdullah answers.

Capturing most of the TRP chart, I asked Abdullah about how important are TRPs and what effect they have that make producers choose a few scripts which are repetitive. “TRP plays a pivotal role in helping us know which type of TV content is being followed the most. We do not decide what the audience wants to watch; it’s the audience who decides what they want to watch, therefore, we create such content that many consider repetitive. It might be repetitive, but it still rules the TRP chart.”

On the contrary, Sami Khan thinks that TRP game puts pressure on an actor to perform well enough to bring the highest TRP for the channel. “It’s time something should be done about it. We need to raise the bar and give different stuff to the audience instead of what the TRP suggests. Dramas like Kankar and Zindagi Gulzar Hai were aired when we were fighting the Indian soap operas, and right now we don’t have much competition, even amongst ourselves. The best stuff happens when you are competing hard and our producers need to revisit that angle this year.”

Usman Peerzada, the veteran TV and film actor, recalls how dramas in his times were all about true passion and today it’s all commercial. “It seems to me that the drama industry has hit a rut and is not moving forward in the right direction. But I won’t say that today’s TV serials are substandard, when compared with those produced in our times,” says Usman Peerzada.

“No doubt, there is talent and confidence in today’s actors, but the only thing which is missing is passion, an essential attribute that helped us hone our acting skills and gave the industry such memorable and irreplaceable content deemed as classic today. Today, actors do not try to take their craft to the next level as most of them tend to think commercially,” he stated.

According to him, there are tens of networks that produce so many dramas in a day that the mind boggles when you try to calculate the number of serials which go on air every week. “In our times, we were converting classic novels into dramas and one such example is ‘Teesra Kinara.’ We adapted concepts even from Russian literature and would do theatre so passionately without thinking in terms of its commercial success. Whoever couldn’t make films in that era died peacefully with no regrets as what they did for television in those years is unmatchable even today.”

Usman Peerzada believes there is a dire need to revise the content and scrutinise it critically, however, we do not have good stories to share with the audience. “Right now, I have four to five scripts to go through and I am perplexed which one to take and which one to drop, as in every script there is a daughter eloping from her marriage or a depressed woman crying at the top of her voice throughout the serial. In fact, there is so much depression and sadness in scripts being written today.”

“My question is, ‘Why do we need to portray only the negative aspects of our society?’ I am not saying that these stories do not exist, but where are the creative minds and thoughtful writers? As things currently stand, all famous and well-established playwrights have hired people who write for them and that is the reason we do not have stories like ‘Dhoop Kinaray’ and ‘Kankar’ anymore,” he added.

He is of the view that India has gone way ahead in terms of technology and craft, but on the other hand, we have everything at hand but we lack people to utilise it. The production houses in Pakistan, according to him, should think many times before finalising a script and critically analyse what message they are trying to convey, considering the fact that their channel is also aired in other corners of the world.

“TV is a commercial entity and that is our bread and butter so I would not say that they should stop selling what is in demand. But it will be sheer hypocrisy that we banned Indian content in our country because it was damaging our cultural roots and now we are showing the same rubbish in our dramas, based on age-old lower middle-class issues, saas-bahu disputes, and domestic politics,” Usman Peerzada said.

Being the biggest entertainment industry right now, it is time to talk about bigger stories and better content and in the end, contemplate what is being delivered to the audience. Except for the entertainment, what else is there in a TV serial that makes a viewer think? There was such one TV serial that touched my soul and made me ask myself, ‘Why I never thought of becoming an Army Officer?’ And that was ‘Aik Hai Nigar’ which was a biographical drama based on the life of Nigar Johar, a three-star general of the Pakistan Army. Another example is Sinf-e-Ahan which was a drama serial that left an impact on the audience. In a word, if we want to make heroes out of ordinary souls, we need to tell inspiring stories.

As Charles Dickens writes in his novel, A Tale of Two Cities, “A day wasted on others is not wasted on one’s self.” I conclude my article with this quote, hoping that our producers bring more quality than quantity to the television screens realising the fact that amidst all the political chaos, depression and mayhem, our people truly need entertainment and TV is the great escape that everyone turns to with one’s eyes glued to the screen.