You Owe me a Job

[muse]

Friends:

What's all this then?? Heavily made Indian women in Sari and vulgar Turks are threatening the Culture, values, Nationalism and the Pakistani way of life


Foreign dramas threaten Pakistani cultural values

ISLAMABAD: Artistes of the Pakistani showbiz industry said that a sequence of events hastened the collapse of the Pakistani movie industry but the two setbacks that stand out in this unwanted process are the decision to allow the exhibition of Indian films in Pakistani cinemas and the airing of foreign, especially Turkish and Indian, drama serials on local TV channels.

The artistes more or less agreed that this “external cultural invasion” was snatching away the remaining outlets available for Pakistani artistes to show their skills in the field of performing arts.

Pakistani dramas, now losing out prime time space to foreign-produced drama, not only regaled the audience at home with their excellent content and quality but also gained popularity abroad with their superb depiction of Pakistani cultural values.

In the 90s, when Pakistan’s film industry crashed, TV dramas accommodated the artistes of silver screen in an attempt to keep alive the identity of the actors.

Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA) Director General Tauqeer Nasir said, “Unfortunately, we did not take timely action to save our film industry but the recent cultural invasion by Turkish and Indian dramas on Pakistani channels is unacceptable for TV artistes and if the issue is not handled properly, history will repeat itself and it will adversely affect our cultural values and heritage.”

“Enhancing viewership and making money sometimes creates gaps and the downfall of Lollywood was the result of not filling these gaps in time. The drama sector will suffer if the Pakistani nation stays silent,” he added.

Tauqeer Nasir also said, “Pakistan has immense talent, but unfortunately we do not honour our heroes and value our heritage which is creating lack of nationalism in the young generation.”

He added that it was the duty of parents and teachers to create a sense of nationalism among the youth and media should also play a constructive role in this regard by realising the national interest and promoting the cultural heritage of the country.

“The trend of airing Turkish and Indian dramas on top channels poses a question mark on our local production standards which were not low. The dramas being produced and directed here follow true ethical and cultural values, viewership restrictions and issues purely connected to our society. First, we brought the culture of Indian sarees and heavily made-up women in our homes, and now Turkish dramas are invading our culture and promoting vulgarity to a great extent,” the PNCA DG remarked.

Tauqeer Nasir said that the media should launch a comprehensive awareness campaign on the slogan of ‘Be Pakistani, See Pakistani’ to benefit the local drama industry, artistes, talent and more importantly to keep the local culture and traditions alive.

“Our dramas are all about raising issues of human interest and bringing correction to the society with soft expressions of performing art,” Tauqeer added.

Renowned Film Director and Producer, Syed Noor said that these foreign dramas should not be showcased on Pakistani TV channels, as it will create confusion among the youth in adopting between local and foreign cultural values.

“The dramas being produced in Pakistan were purely family content while the foreign dramas have their own culture, which include bold dressing and way of living, which is not acceptable for most of the Pakistani families,” he added.

Syed Noor hoped that the trend would prove to be a temporary one and said, “Our artistes have talent and they will take this challenge with an open heart to reverse the trend.”

A top management official of a private TV channel said that the channels promoted foreign dramas because they received better feedback. app

 

[somebozo]

May be they could focus on creating better dramas instead of resorting to protectionism!

 

[livingdead]

Is there a fund to support home made movies there... govt can help the industry for sure...

 

[muse]

May be they could focus on creating better dramas instead of resorting to protectionism!

Get real Bozo!

How can Ghareloo Pakistines compete with gorgeous Sari clad heavily made up Indian women and those awful handsome and lovely Vulgar Turks???

Be proud, Be Pakistani, See Pakistani, Settle for stuff we feed you not stuff you want - that's Indian and Vulgar, a threat to our culture, our values and our nationalism - How dare you assert that you want to be a part of world, that you relate with other peoples? where is your sense of shame and where is you nationalism --Watch us, pay us and we'll show you the exactly same story, poorly acted, poorly produced, it's what you deserve, after all culture exists in stasis, like Pakistan.

 

[Sugarcane]

Get real Bozo!

How can Ghareloo Pakistines compete with gorgeous Sari clad heavily made up Indian women and those awful handsome and lovely Vulgar Turks???

Be proud, Be Pakistani, See Pakistani, Settle for stuff we feed you not stuff you want - that's Indian and Vulgar, a threat to our culture, our values and our nationalism - How dare you assert that you want to be a part of world, that you relate with other peoples? where is your sense of shame and where is you nationalism --Watch us, pay us and we'll show you the exactly same story, poorly acted, poorly produced, it's what you deserve, after all culture exists in stasis, like Pakistan.

I don't know the current situation, But Pakistani dramas used to be better than Indian

 

[muse]

I don't know the current situation, But Pakistani dramas used to be better than Indian

And now they are not - Culture is never in stasis, regardless of what Pakistanis artists may wish to believe -- A couple of other issues, look at the immense popularity of the "vulgar Turks" - how does one explain it?? Does the fact that the Turks are speaking Urdu have anything to do with it? what does the popularity of the Turkish soaps say about how Pakistanis see themselves or want to see themselves?? Is what the so called artists (more like ideologues) suggesting anything different than what the politicians have been offering?, in other words they think we owe them and all they have to do is press our buttons - I find it very disturbing that they (artists, by definition avant garde,progressive) should be so out of step with reality

 

[Leader]

I don't know the current situation, But Pakistani dramas used to be better than Indian

well they still are !!

the Turkish drama are great actually..... competition is good, cultural threat etc is just economic loss crying !!

 

[MilSpec]

And I thought turks were a benchmark for progressive muslim society

 

[muse]

Stoking the fires of radicalisation
Masood Haider


One of the great achievements of the Musharrarf regime was the granting of far greater freedom to the press than the previous regimes, which has continued under the PPP government. However, most unfortunately, the relatively greater freedom that the electronic media now enjoy has not been handled with a corresponding sense of responsibility by them within the scope of all their activities including entertainment.

The media have been responsible to a large extent for the radicalisation of the population of the country, infusing more religiosity in a country already greatly obsessed with religion, perpetuating ridiculous conspiracy theories and creating a fiercely, irrational and non-pragmatic anti-American environment. A number of anchors are visibly pro-Taliban and viciously anti-west and their lack of objectivity is barely concealed; such anchors were able to stoke the fires of the outrage that followed the killing of Osama bin Laden. Not one anchor questioned why the declared number one enemy of the power with which the country was on friendly terms remained hidden right under the noses of the establishment while they all castigated the United States for violating Pakistan’s sovereignty and spun dark, implausible and laughable conspiracy theories. It was this quite clear tilt towards the Taliban and the extremist forces that one of the anchors on a major network had the audacity to give equal time to the perpetuators of the Lal Masjid fiasco and tried to transform the traitors who wanted to challenge the writ of the government into martyrs. The right-wing electronic media methodically gives exposure to the likes of Hamid Gul and others who are acolytes of the Taliban, declared enemies of the state, question the involvement of the Taliban in terrorist attacks, accusing Indian agents or other outside forces for such atrocities and proclaiming these savages to be ‘our brothers’.

The channels fan the flames of intolerance and bigotry in a nation already obsessed with a crazed religiosity, by offering far too many religious programs. It was on one of such programs that the ‘aalim’ Dr. Amir Liaqat Ali, whose true face was revealed in the video that went viral, showing his obscenity laden outburst, elicited from one of his guests the fatwa that Ahmadis could be killed as they were not just ‘non-Muslims’ but ‘apostates’, leading to the murder of three innocent Ahmadis the very next day.

The disease of radicalism and intolerance has even reached the shores of the United States where the Muslim population is supposedly more moderate. In a program named ‘Ghaib Ki Baatain’ on one of the channels, presented through a TV station owned by a local Pakistani American tycoon, the guest, proclaiming to be a sufi but acting strictly like a salafist in answer to a question, if it was jaaiz for a Sunni to marry a Shia replied in the negative, a viewpoint which was supported by a number of postings on the hazrat’s facebook page accompanied by vicious and hateful tirades against the Shias. During Moharram, in one of his sermons, he referred to Yazid in a respectable manner. However, in an example that could be emulated in Pakistan, through the persistent application of pressure on the producers of the programs by only two people, who relentlessly pursued this matter, the hazrat was replaced by an aalim and the program finally moved to another channel which will hopefully act more responsibly.

The pronounced reactionary tilt in the ‘News and View’ arena is bad enough but even in the entertainment field, the lack of responsibility is most glaringly evident. More than 90 per cent of the TV dramas are penned by novices.

The repetitious hackneyed plots more often than not are idiotic, unrealistic and implausible and do a great harm to the society by presenting archaic stereotypes and awful, conservative portrayals of women as weak, hapless, totally at the mercy of their husbands and in-laws, with no possibility of escape from their horrible life situations, who can be summarily thrown out by the husband merely repeating talaak three times.

The dearth of good playwrights leads to formula plots of a cruel mother-in-law, a spineless, obedient son and a jellyfish of a husband, a subservient daughter-in-law for whom working outside the home, demanding a divorce, returning to her parents or even going to an Edhi center is unthinkable. A distorted version of religious injunctions is presented play after play which stipulates that a woman can be summarily divorced or has a religious duty to stick with her abusive husband. Such awful depiction of women reinforces their second class citizen role that the religious right advocates and by presenting women in such a light the channels are complicit in further marginalising the already pitiful status of women in Pakistan.

When one looks at the trend of the dramas playing at any one time, one is struck by the similarity in plots, as if they were all written by the same playwright e.g. a brother or a sister lusting after his or her sibling’s paramour or spouse, the husband who divorces his wife in a manner most favored by the playwrights in a fit of insane rage now attempting to resort to ‘Halala’ another favorite of theirs. The arrival of the Turkish plays, which may also suffer from this criticism, but may have better plots is causing great concern in the TV entertainment industry but it may induce the stakeholders; the channel owners, the playwrights and the producers to direct their energies to present more socially responsible plays and help fight the battle against rigidity, retrogressive thinking and intolerance.

 

[AZADPAKISTAN2009]

Pakistani Dramas do not have same funding , nor do they have the Directors and Supporting crew that works on some of the competitor's tv stations.

The difference is apparent in dubbing

Pakistani dramas you can barely hear any dialogs since the technologies used for dubbing is old and they don't do dubbing in studios. Dialogs are said on sets and recorded resulting in a bad audio / voiceover There is no background music

Also other areas such as Sets and Makeup all all lagging behind


Finally their is lack of genuine artist , we see alot of old actors and family based productions as opposed to National Search for
Actors on grand scale to get 4,000-5,000 Artist uncovered in Pakistani Sector who decide to choose Acting as their profesion

There is lack of proper Comedy shows in Pakistan , with focus more being on "annoying" voiceovers rather then humor and jokes. Not once but 2-3 ocassions I watched alleged Pakistani comedy shows , and found that there were no punch lines or jokes but instead the focus by the actor was to change their natural voice to sound like a idiotic frog and make up for lack of a joke or humor.

Gone are the days of Anwar Maqsood's subtle or direct humor for the educated class, infact you can pick up any of the old shows and you could enjoy the talk and wit of the man and class

The other day I was watching a Pakistani comedy clip and asked my parents , what was the funny part on the joke on tv , the actor just merely changed their voice in a annoying fashion , and the joke was pretty lul ..

Even in 70's when we had shows like 50-50 you could see there were creative writers and actors whose dialogs you could hear much better and they truely entertained you.

There is no real entertainment with current corp

The biggest thing that attracts people to TV is "youth" unfortunately there is no drive in Youth to be on TV anymore


Also there are no dramas that target or engage the audiance


Modern audiance has been won over by the Soap Opera style delivery model introduced by Zee TV , not that any self respecting man would watch that garbage , but the truth is that genre is geared towards the ladies and they love the glitter , the family stories and constant barrage of wedding and parties plannedon these shows. And there is no shortage of young actors and singers emerging on these shows


Pakistan Drama industry needs a overhaul

Once it had talented Actors like
Abid Ali, Mr Qawi , My favourite Mr Shakeel, Moeen Akhtar , and many female artist of great quality and beauti

Lack or Entertainment promotes Extremism and Nonesense

Politics should account for only 2% of time on National TV shows where they bring politicians and they sit and cry with their FAT stomaches full of National stolen rupees

When Perody shows , start making perodies of Politicians instead of Actors and Actresses you know you have a problem because that mean no one in Pakistan can relate to any actor or actresses , the only people they see on TV are politicians who use this time to promote their political agendas

Summary:
Industry Needs Funding and Budget from Government
Need financially Strong Production Houses (Executive Producers)
Need Music and Directoral Strength
Need a National Telant pool to introduce 5000-7000 new actors every 5 year period
Ceralization of Industry , instead of small scale productions (Family Based)
Industry needs Youth Injection and Mentoring by Senior Artist
Together with Drive and collaboration with Music Channels to drive back people to watching Youth Driven TV channels

Lack of Entertainment - Lack of Music ->Promotes Extremism

Waiting for 8 o clock , prime time Drama used to be a tradition in Pakistan familes sitting down and eating dinner and watching the Dramas , with freshly cooked Rotis or ordered Tandoori rootis
and then followed by the boring news. And every day used to promise a different drama or on some days some Games (Shows). A chance for families to share family time.

Now , things may have changed slightly as you don't really see quality product to watch with families

Some blame could be laid on 80's policies sadly and now we are stuck with Zee TV and Soap Operas

 

[indushek]

That syed noor guy has given some n number of shows on various channels about decline of Pakistani Industry. This person has only three words everytime no financiers, Cinema's are anti Pakistani they put up Indian films, Indian films are a threat (he says this on one hand and again says when my films are put up Indian films don't make a single rupee, pretty confused he is). Finally he curses the govt for not doing much while the other panelists say that the govt has already provided tax exemptions!!!!!! He wants the govt to invest in studios with technology and sets i was like wtf!!!!!!!!

 

[muse]

That syed noor guy has given some n number of shows on various channels about decline of Pakistani Industry. This person has only three words everytime no financiers, Cinema's are anti Pakistani they put up Indian films, Indian films are a threat (he says this on one hand and again says when my films are put up Indian films don't make a single rupee, pretty confused he is). Finally he curses the govt for not doing much while the other panelists say that the govt has already provided tax exemptions!!!!!! He wants the govt to invest in studios with technology and sets i was like wtf!!!!!!!!

Indushek - Actually it's you who is confused about Pakistan - in Pakistan the solution to all problems is the government, in other words, a bank you do not have to repay

 

[Backbencher]

People here are complaining that they lack adequate funding therefore they are not able to produce decent dramas however let me assure you that funding is secondry .

 

[Contrarian]

What kind of logic is this?

Let them run, let Pakistani shows get better to compete!

 

[Peregrine]

Pakistani shows are still way better than Indian or Turkish soaps/shows........its just that some private channels like Geo are too obsessed with foreign culture especially Bollywood.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TgZC5ck7Agw