Ertugrul and Pakistani Industry

After gaining sweeping popularity in the Middle East and South Africa, the Turkish television series ‘Dirilis: Ertugrul’ has become a monster hit in Pakistan. One can imagine the hype of this drama after State-owned Pakistan Television (PTV) achieved one million YouTube subscribers in one month.

Prime Minister Imran Khan personally recommended the nation to watch the action-packed drama. He not only recommending the popular serial but insisted that all five seasons should be dubbed in Urdu so that the general public can watch and understand.

People often described it as a Turkish Game of Thrones. The serial is woven around 13^th century Anatolia and tells the story prior to the establishment of the Ottoman Empire. It illustrates the struggle of Ertugrul Gazi, father of the empire’s first leader.

Pakistani dramas and filmmakers always remain lobbying to ban Turkish dramas because of their popularity, which threatened to destroy the fragile Pakistani industry. There was a time when Pakistani dramas were famous as much as other Turkish Drama. However, still, some of the recent Pakistani dramas captured the eyes of the audience around the world. Yes, you read it write, Pakistani dramas were famous globally.

But in my opinion, nowadays Pakistani dramas are not more than Saas- Bahu rivalries. Another theme of Pakistani dramas these days are conspiracies among the families. Most dramas produced in the country have no significant impact on its popular culture.  Today, it’s more important for dramas to attract ads, by using star-studded casts, than to focus on any depth or character development.

Same redundant situation is in the Pakistani film industry. Copying trends are at their peak. Excluding some of the Pakistani movies, others are not focusing on the production quality, and the most important thing ‘Script’. It seems like Pakistani scriptwriters have forgotten to write. We have once made films like, ‘Bol’ and ‘Khuda Kay Liye’. But nothing good happened to our film industry after that.

Pakistan has a number of great directors, filmmakers, and actors, which are currently working on YouTube. But his ‘Parchi’ culture in Pakistan has destroyed every sector of the country. Pakistan’s story writers should come up with some unique content that can capture the attention of the world. Because it is the century of Netflix, which stories and production are the best.