In Pakistan, the entertainment industry is technically not very young. The music of Pakistan along with the rich feature film industry at the time of partition has given strong foothold to the entertainment industry in Pakistan .At that time as many were migrating from their native cities, some precious talent destined them in this territory and has produced some pearls for the entertainment industry.
The music was very rich and it may be considered as the classical period of music in Pakistan .Coming back to Television, Pakistan TV, that is known as PTV have started it transmission in early 60s and it is still considered as nursery for Pakistani Drama and television programming .
Some renowned and highly viewed software for PTV are still worth watching, even though some are more then 40 to 50 years old .We have no doubts that drama producers, actors, actresses and writers of those times are mentors for many aspiring people of this fraternity.
In the year 1990 , PTV have started inviting the private sector to produce dramas and sell it to PTV under different marketing and sales arrangements .Simultaneously a private TV channel started showing its transmission under the license of using terrestrial network of public sector . The name of that channel was NTM.
This was the period when private sector have got an opportunity for giving their best shot and at the same time make and form the norms, values and learn the viability of private production business, especially the dramas for TV .It was the time of learning mostly about math of this business as the talent was abundant and was energetic and aggressive to prove its worth .New subjects for dramas were explored and were executed with comparatively heavier budgets and some of the TV serials have got huge success , tremendous viewership and highest revenues.
This was the nurturing period and based on this foundation, Pakistani Dramas were on their peak and the industry is surely producing the best dramas in entire south Asia
In Pakistan, where the household family viewing is very much intact and subject matters of dramas mostly revolves around the cultural and social values. Some liberal and advanced topics of west are either forbidden or are not digestible or are opposite to moral values of majority of the population.
In such restricted environment (as normally the environment for creativity and specially for media industry is quite liberal ) this is very exemplary situation , that best dramas are being produced and those dramas are generating high revenues for the channels and highest grp’s for the brands , those are advertising during top rated dramas .
One other factor which gives Pakistani dramas an edge is their competition with Indian film industry, though Indians call it Hindi movies but the language is Urdu and same which is widely understood and spoken in Pakistan. In the presence of such strong film industry across the border and availability of movies on cable channels and on DVD’s at a negligible price, the production of such high-end Drama serials and their extensive viewership is no doubt a remarkable achievement of Pakistan TV production industry.
Author: Maqbool Mirza -about author www.maqboolmirza.com