Where, oh, where have the good old days of television gone?

Writers and directors at Islamabad Literary Festival say commercial success takes precedence over quality.

ISLAMABAD: TV dramas have lost their glory and viewership after the advent of private TV channels in the country. This can be blamed on today’s producers who focus on a play’s commercial success as compared to its content and story line.

During a session titled Popular TV Dramay Mein Hum Kya Dekhtay Hain at the Islamabad Literary Festival, renowned drama writers, directors and actors of Pakistan’s television industry recalled the golden era of television when a team would spend days and months to produce one quality drama.  In those days, roads would be deserted and people would come home earlier to watch dramas like Waris, Khuda Ki Basti, Tanhaiyaan and Dhoop Kinarey among others.

“Private TV channels have done the same with dramas as Kerry Packer did with cricket,” said Amjad Islam Amjad, a well-known poet, drama writer and lyricist at the session.

He said private channels operate like fast food outlets, in that they produce dramas within a few minutes and serve it to the viewers without giving any consideration to quality content.

“Now people acknowledge a director who shoots maximum number of scenes in one day,” he said. “The poor content of programmes forces viewers to continuously change channels.”

“These days our dramas do not truly represent the culture and people of this country as they did earlier,” said Amjad. “We mostly see saas-bahu conflicts in which the characters fight, slap each other and argue.”

Amjad feels the content disheartens viewers. “Our society is not as bad as it is shown in dramas nowadays,” said Amjad.

There was a time when the roads would be deserted and people would come home earlier to watch quality dramas. PHOTOS: MYRA IQBAL

TV One and News One CEO Seema Tahir Khan was also present at the session, where she said that a major reason behind poor content is the absence of a code of conduct.

“Television channels should have a strategy through which they come up with content to help change the mindset of viewers,” she said. “At the same time, they should motivate and inspire the audience to bring a positive change,” said Khan.

During the session, renowned TV director, writer and producer Agha Nasir expressed his concern over foreign content which has flooded private channels.

In response to this, Amjad said that Turkish dramas have brought a breath of fresh air to the Pakistani drama audience which is getting bored of the same old stories. However, actor Laila Zuberi disagreed. She feels foreign content is a threat to the Pakistani drama industry.

“Though Pakistani TV industry has the capacity and ability to compete with the foreign content, the problem is that our channels are not giving preference to our dramas,” said Zuberi. “Presently, the major challenge for us to get a platform to broadcast our dramas.”

While she believes that viewers have lost interest in watching dramas that every channel is flooded with, Zuberi also expresses her concern over the content of the dramas.

“People do not want to see a crying woman in the drama,” said Zuberi. “They want to see something that would give them a reason to smile.”

Published in The Express Tribune, May 3^rd, 2013.                      

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