Not so surprisingly, I’d never heard of these shows before, and its safe to assume a lot of youngsters haven’t as well. Granted that these dramas are quite old ones, but it does also show us about our shifting priorities in terms of the content we create and consume.<\/p>\n
Humayun Saeed calls out lack of government support<\/h3>\n
The veteran actor spoke out about the lack of diversity and growth within Pakistani shows and the industry. According to him, it is the government’s responsibility to create and promote such shows.<\/p>\n
\u201cI could produce it but the problem is that shows [like Erturgrul] require massive financial investments,\u201d said Saeed. \u201cThey made Ertugrul with the Turkish government\u2019s financial aid. If our government supports me or any other capable producer, we could do it as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Censorship is another issue<\/h3>\n
While there is no denying the importance of government-support in promoting our cultural industries, it\u2019s almost far too easy to put the blame on them entirely. Of course, there is something to be said about the kind of censorship rules PEMRA imposes. Saeed\u2019s own Meray Paas Tum Ho gained national acclaim and even saw it\u2019s finale screened in cinemas. However, when it came to Sarmad Khoosat\u2019s Zindagi Tamasha PEMRA decided it wasn\u2019t appropriate enough to release.<\/p>\n
The control of such content means we see the same kind of mindless TV shows being aired over and over. The producers play it safe with tried and tested tropes and storylines.<\/p>\n
![\"\"](\"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/C4499C55-6270-49AC-9B38-CF1A43DC39EC.jpeg\")
<\/p>\n
Last but not the least, the industry shares the blame<\/h3>\n
It\u2019s not just the authorities that are to blame though. It is interesting to see when actors comment on the lack of diversity in Pakistani TV shows. Because it\u2019s those very same actors that continue to agree to and represent those roles over and over again. Scripts may not fall into the actor\u2019s domain but their influence means that established actors, in particular, are in a certain position to make demands. O<\/p>\n
At the very least, actors can refuse to represent roles that go against their principles.<\/p>\n
The new web series Churails<\/strong> has garnered a lot of debate, but it\u2019s made one thing clear – those in the industry have the power and resources to bring about fresh content. However, the show debuted on a digital platform, which explains why it was able to break many storytelling taboos.<\/p>\n Then again, the debate takes on a new dimension when the audience is factored in. Whether it\u2019s simply because we don\u2019t know any better or because we genuinely find joy in the same old narratives that only ever talk about saas-Bahu issues and love affairs, our audience thrives on the current content. If we want something different, it\u2019s time we demand it.<\/p>\n Saeed\u2019s argument is that Ertugrul was made because of the government\u2019s financial aid. That may be so, but it was also made because it had so much more than that. Despite the fact that we consume content from all over the world, self-censorship and moral policing cripple our industry from stepping out of the box.<\/p>\n In such a scenario, some Pakistani actors have found it easy to critique Ertugrul but much harder to step up to the plate and create content that can compete. The truth is, it\u2019s easy to lend support to initiatives when someone else is in charge of paving the way. But much harder to raise your voice amongst a sea of beliefs pushing you in the opposite direction.<\/p>\n ALSO READ<\/p>\n Yasir Hussain Gets Called Out By Anoshey Ashraf Over ‘Turkish Celebrity Hate’<\/a><\/p>\n Actor and producer Humayun Saeed has spoken out about his love for Ertugrul and the need for more Pakistani TV shows along the same lines. \u201cThe last time we came up with such a show was over 30 or 40 years ago,\u201d he said. He was referring to Pakistani classic dramas like Tipu Sultan, Babar and Akhri Chattan which highlighted […] More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":77,"featured_media":276516,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1298,2199,1293,1297],"tags":[],"adace-sponsor":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-276462","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-culture","8":"category-featured","9":"category-lollywood","10":"category-tv-movies-music"},"wps_subtitle":"Here's what Humayun Saeed thinks.","img_urls":{"thumbnail":["https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/642102AC-D3CC-4B11-AE3D-75970213CDAD-364x205.jpeg",364,205,true],"medium":["https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/642102AC-D3CC-4B11-AE3D-75970213CDAD.jpeg",703,341,false],"full":["https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/08\/642102AC-D3CC-4B11-AE3D-75970213CDAD.jpeg",703,341,false]},"author_name":"Anmol Irfan","categories_name":["Culture","Featured","Lollywood","TV & Film"],"title_text":"How Can Pakistani TV Shows Compete Against Turkish Dramas?","related_stories":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts?filter&per_page=4&categories=1298,2199,1293,1297&exclude=276462","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/77"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=276462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/276462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/276516"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=276462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=276462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=276462"},{"taxonomy":"adace-sponsor","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/propakistani.pk\/lens\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/adace-sponsor?post=276462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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