The screens have moved from the walls to hands and the ads are now avoidable with streaming platforms, but the content made for TV audiences is still going strong. I am talking particularly about Pakistani dramas that time and again have defied changing trends to not only stay relevant within Pakistan but also garner a large following across the globe, especially amidst Indian fans. 

“I got my parents started with Zindagi Gulzar Hai and now they have left me far behind and need to watch a new Pakistani serial every week,” says Naomi Datta, a TV creative director who has worked on Indian reality shows such as The Tribe and The Fabulous Lives of Bollywood Wives. “My Gen Z niece is also hooked – the current favourite is Kabhi Main Kabhi Tum (KMKT).”

The Fahad Mustafa and Hania Aamir starrer is a perfect example of how dramas can take on a life of their own beyond TV, through memes and reels. Not only was KMKT trending on X in India and Bangladesh, scenes and montages from the show were all over social media feeds, piquing the interest of even those not familiar with Pakistani dramas. From Monday being rebranded as ‘Mustafa Sharjeena Day’ on Instagram to memes of people anxiously waiting for the next episode to drop, the show’s popularity is a testament to how content produced for TV is still resonating with audiences, local and international. 

So what exactly makes these dramas endearing in the age of short attention spans? “The romance – Pakistani serials get it right,” says Datta. “It is very difficult to craft a modern love story now, but because these shows create a world that is largely conservative and traditional, you manage to get conflict, which is otherwise missing in more contemporary romance.”

She also finds them to be perfect for family viewing. “The plots centre around the universal themes of love, marriage and family – it is like a South Asian Jane Austen world,” she tells me from Bombay. “The tropes are familiar but the world they create, the dialogues and the acting are miles ahead of the average Indian soap.”  

Twenty-two-year-old Barani, a producer in a media organisation in Noida, is in agreement about the allure of romance in Pakistani dramas. “Let’s be honest, we are suckers for desi romances. And Pakistani dramas deliver in abundance!”

Originally from South India, she admires the Urdu spoken in these serials – calling it poetic. “I have recently started watching Mere Humsafar, and I’m loving it. The title track initially caught my attention, but as I kept watching, I grew fond of the drama itself. It is a bit longer than I prefer, but still, I would highly recommend it to others.”

Pakistani dramas, all the way back to Tanhaiyaan, have hit a chord with Indian fans, but nothing propelled their popularity like Humsafar and then Zindagi Gulzar Hai. Both came out in the early 2010s and starred Fawad Khan, whose entry into Bollywood as a heartthrob also played a role in these serials being discovered. 

“Humsafar is evergreen and followed in India across classes and masses,” says Sarfaraz S. Furniturewalla. The 76-year-old resident of Mumbai is also a fan of Raqeeb Se, calling it outstanding – it also received wide acclaim in Pakistan. He credits the similarities between Pakistan and India as a main reason the shows do well in India. “There’s a similarity in culture, especially in the rural areas, where the head of the family decides what is to be followed by the majority of the families regardless of monetary status,” he notes. 

A major turning point with regard to Indian viewership came in 2014 with the launch of Zee’s Zindagi channel that aired hits like Zindagi Gulzar Hai, Humsafar and Pyarey Afzal. But YouTube and OTT platforms like Zee5 and Netflix India played a bigger role in bringing these shows to the younger generations. One only has to go through the comment section of the YouTube channels showing these dramas to get an idea of their appeal; from clothes to music to chemistry, there are lengthy conversations among people from different parts of the world. 

However, with a wide range of content made available more rapidly via streaming platforms and summaries of shows offering people lazy viewing on TikTok, one has to wonder if these dramas that rely on weekly episodes can sustain their popularity.

Both Datta and Bharani think they will, saying that while their fixation with Pakistani dramas may have started with Fawad Khan, it has carried on since then. “Just as Korean serials, with their conservatism, are still a huge draw with Gen Z, Pakistani serials that function on the same tropes could still have an audience,” Datta says. “It also helps that they have a finite run and the story is not stretched to a point where it becomes implausible or silly. The storytelling can be old-fashioned, but it is just comfort food done very well. In a time and age where there is a template of a ‘hook a minute’ series on streaming platforms, it is great to watch a story told well and in a leisurely fashion,” she notes.

There is also an element of voyeurism that feeds into the popularity of these shows given the lack of access to the countries themselves for people on both sides. The comment sections on social media tell a story of people from two nations bonding on commonalities and showing appreciation beyond the love-hate game of cricket. A TV show enthusiast, Fatima, originally from Dhaka and based in London, puts it aptly. “Even though Bollywood is big in Pakistan, it depicts an exaggerated image of India, barring some well-thought productions. Pakistani television, on the other hand, to a large part, does justice to the reality of the society it represents, and that’s refreshing for South Asians who often see themselves portrayed in an even more exaggerated manner in the West.”

With Turkish dramas dubbed in Urdu and Korean serials making subtitles acceptable, Pakistani content made for TV has a real shot at going strong in the coming years, especially if show makers push it across different streaming platforms. It’s a balancing act between continuing to make shows that appeal to the public and not repeating more of the same to the point of losing audience. “There is so much more to South Asians than saas-bahu conundrums and women fighting over the same man. If Pakistani shows continue to explore different themes and remain grounded in reality, they can continue building their fandom in the face of changing content,” sums up Fatima. 

Zahrah Mazhar is Deputy Editor, Dawn.com. mazharzahrah@gmail.com