Our media should be hanged: Noman Ijaz

In a recent live session with director and producer Rafay Rashdi on Instagram, popular actor Nouman Ijaz elaborated on the 'progress' of characters and content on Pakistani television since the time he came into the industry till today. 

He said, "If you watch our dramas on YouTube or any channel, you will see that our characters move from the lounge to the drawing room, from there to the kitchen and from the kitchen to the bedroom.”

"They don't want to go outside; they don't even want to look outside the window. How many stories can you make within the four corners of a house?" asked the celebrity. 

Ijaz's ten minute video from the live session currently circulating on the internet is a wakeup call for the entire entertainment industry. Among other things, he started off by pointing out and slamming the striking changes made in the content produced after the arrival of private TV channels.

“Almost all the issues they highlight are similar. Before these private channels came in, dramas used to come in from all four provinces. You got to know about their cultures, their customs, their folk stories, and sitting at home just watching those dramas you used to get so much knowledge.”

He explained how prior to privatisation, people would discuss if what they saw on television was what really happened in Balochistan, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, Sindh and Punjab. On the contrary, he then mocked how today’s television serials only inform the audience about how someone was having an affair with someone else’s husband and got married with some other irrelevant person. “Or you end up seeing this individual taking revenge from someone else for somebody else, or a mother hating on this person’s daughter. What is happening? What are we doing?” he questioned angrily.

“Your dramas have diminished, you need to wake up! These people are just sleeping and feeding an empty box.” He continued to add that viewers these days are exposed to Netflix and Amazon Prime, so broadcasters need to show them equally evoking and informational content in order for them to return to television.

“You can’t hold the private/independent producer responsible, you are responsible the broadcasters are responsible,” Ijaz pointed out. “I remember you quoted Sultana aapa when she made her first private production which was on the concept of ‘khula’,” Ijaz reminded Rashdi. “It became so controversial that people stood up, it created awareness. But what is this father taking revenge from his son or vice versa,” continued the actor.

He continued to slam the private television channels for instilling hatred into the audience, reiterating how life also imitates art. “These kind of things happen on a small scale, but if you start showing such negativity on a channel watched by the masses, they will adopt it.”

“I personally think our media should be hanged, they’re not educating anyone. They think their audience is not smart enough, the audience has become aware but the media is still stuck. They don't want growth they just want volume" concluded Ijaz.

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