The Historical Dramas in the Pakistani Entertainment Industry

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    Historical dramas can be a source to flourish our culture.   The Pakistani television industry is powerful and producing good content for many years. However, the Saas/ Bahu content is overshadowing the good content and it is increasing day by day.

Apart from many things, it is lacking in terms of making dramas on historical figures. one can easily feel the dearth of historical dramas.   

In a comparison of the Pakistani television industry, the Indian entertainment industry has lots of crap serials. However, it is successfully making dramas on the life of their national heroes and historical figures.  

Pakistanis only boil their blood by thinking that it is not true when they see the depiction of their heroes in Indian dramas and movies. After all, our history is the same. Our ancestors were either allies or enemies in the past.

  However, this is a fact that every year, the Indian Entertainment industry produces so many historical dramas. It not only attracts different audiences but also makes them believe that they have a strong history.  We are unable to understand and only makers of Pakistani dramas and movies can answer this why no one thought about making historical dramas.   

What Can Be the Reasons for the dearth of Historical Dramas:

 

Is it because of a low budget? As when you make historical shows you have to show lots of arms, horses and also provide that era wardrobe and most importantly you have to show high-quality cinematography. Or the reason is, they are afraid to portray another party in a negative light.  

When Bollywood made a movie on Alauddin Khalji, there were protests from Muslims and after the movie too that the depiction of Khalji was totally fabrication. But why Pakistani makers never made an effort.  

At least, the Indian entertainment industry is promoting their historical figures, their historical events and their 8/10 movies are about the rivalry of Pakistan and India (although I guess this is their obsessive attitude towards Pakistan).  

It also contributes a lot in increasing their economy and assure them that they were always right while Muslims were always wrong. Perhaps this is how nationalism and patriotism works.  

In comparison to this, the Turkish entertainment industry is much more flourished (more than India’s). They have produced marvellous historical shows such as Muhtesem Yuzyil (Magnificent Century) and Dirilis: Ertugrul. The show is also available on Netflix now and it has a huge fan following across the world.  

The Pakistani television industry is also devoid of the content regarding partition. The drama Dastan could make a mark and perhaps it was the only show about some historical event. It is based on the novel “Bano”, not only it covers the issue of partition of Sub-Continent but also the violence that women faced at that time. This is also a bitter reality that women of both sides faced violence at that time.

The drama Aangan also depicts some incidents about the partition of the Sub-continent but it also could not attract that much attention as Dastaan. The biggest reason is that Aangan did not come on Youtube and a large number of the audience could not watch it. The rumours were it will air on Netflix, however, there is no progress in this matter.

Only in the era of PTV, there were dramas about soldiers, Kashmir or separation of East and West Pakistan but they were very few. But it seems to be the story of old times. About historical figures, there is nothing, not in history not in present.    

Perhaps our drama and movie makers are in fear that maybe they will not get approval from officials to release their work in Pakistan.  Our politicians mostly avoid hurting their neighbor’s sentiments.  

Obviously we cannot do this task without hurting their sentiments as we have old relations with each other (of love and hate).  

The Pakistani Entertainment industry can make dramas not only on the rise and fall of Mughal Empire to national heroes like Tipu Sultan but they can also make dramas or movies on pre-partition Iconic figures like Allama Iqbal, Quaid-e-Azam, Sir Syed Ahmed Khan and Liaquat Ali Khan. But to do all this, we need confidence and courage. We should decide whether we want to glorify our heroes or not without hurting the sentiments of others.

Historical Dramas are the Biggest Need of the Hour:

If drama makers will work on different topics and try to make dramas on historical figures, it will definitely attract people. The people are crazy about ongoing Turkish drama especially the Islamic world and they think that there should be more dramas like that. The government should also provide funds and promote these kinds of historical dramas.

For this, firstly we should come out from the inferiority complex that we do not have any history or national heroes. We should accept that one man hero is another man villain so if someone says to you these are not our national heroes perhaps you should have to be brave. Secondly, the government should make acting academies where people will learn acting and introduce new faces. Thirdly, we as the Pakistani nation should decide whether we want to see good content or not and for this, we have to come out of our typical mentality of calling these actors with bad names.

After all, they will have an equal share of their earning and it will promote our culture too. The new generation is confused about their history as it is difficult to decide who is wrong or right and even there are many who think they do not have any history or something to cherish.We are forgetting our history and our neighbour country is more interested in that, wrong or right this is another debate.