There was a time when people used to anxiously wait for their favourite drama on Pakistan Television (PTV) not too long ago. Not just in Pakistan, the PTV dramas were popular even in India.
While the PTV dramas have lost most of their audience to the revolution of soaps and private productions, Pakistani dramas continue to attract a large audience in sub-continent and outside it through cable TV.
Members of Pakistani community living in Doha, and particularly the generation who grew up on the dramas of 80s and 90s, got a rare opportunity to catch up with one of the men behind the success of PTV dramas. The creator of landmark plays and drama series on PTV like Inkar, Din, Khawaja and Sons and others, Ayub Khawar was in town.
Moderating the Aalmi Mushaira (international poetry symposium) organised by Majlis Farogh-e-Urdu Adab Qatar, Khawar found himself surrounded by curious members of the audience, wanting to know what made a PTV drama click and what was the reason behind its demise.
“Every rise has a fall. The PTV drama is going through the phase of its fall, and it is sad to see that. It is the people who make organisations and contribute to their successes. I think PTV has lost those people,” Khawar told Community in a chat after the mushaira.
Writer, director, producer and a poet, Khawar has created multiple programmes in different genres for PTV from different stations during his almost three decades long career. He has written, directed and produced TV dramas telecast during early 90s and late 80s and some of them are still telecast and have viewership.
“It (90s) was a time when our dramas were shown in training academies across the border. I remember visiting an academy in Pune (India) and they told us they were showing their students PTV dramas to teach them how to write and produce dramas,” said Khawar.
He said PTV was an institution and it was erected by people who were enthusiastic about their work. Mentioning names like Agha Nasir (one of the pioneers who established PTV in the 60s), Khawar said many other experts in their work also joined PTV.
“For us, TV was a passion. It was a craze. Unfortunately, for people sitting today in PTV, it is merely a job. By doing only your job, you cannot produce exceptional TV. It is bound to be mediocre,” he said.
Khawar mainly used to work with the PTV Centre in Lahore, having directed all of his dramas from the PTV Lahore Centre. He quickly became a household name in the Pakistani drama industry. His long affiliation with national television ended a few years ago when he joined a private TV channel, Geo.
Khawar is currently associated with Dunya TV and is the mind behind its popular talk show Mazaq Raat (Comedy Night), a satirical show featuring prominent comedians and TV show hosts discussing politics.
“I wanted to work on my dream project which was a series on Gulzar’s (Popular Indian writer and poet) stories, which I could not do by staying at PTV. So I decided to leave. And I think it was time. All my old colleagues had either left or they died and PTV was crumbling,” said Khawar.
He blames the continuous political interference by successive governments in Pakistan over the years for the demise of Pakistan’s national TV. Speaking about the countless private TV channels in Pakistan and their production quality, Khawar says the industry needs a lot of improvement.
The race for better ratings and more corporatisation of the TV industry is damaging the quality of dramas and plays being produced at present. However, he is optimistic that quality drama would soon make a comeback in Pakistan as some private TV channels are producing “amazing work.”
“In PTV’s time, we used to produce dramas that were popular for their characters. The characters would become popular. Today, the actors become popular. That is the difference,” said Khawar.
He said that drama-makers need to get back to good writers and directors should be given more authority over their production if they need to produce quality work.
Besides his dramas, Khawar has also directed the most watched talk show in Pakistan, Neelam Ghar. The show was hosted by famous actor and host Tariq Aziz. Khawar has also produced Gulzar-e-Classic, a series based on stories of well-known film director, poet and fiction writer Gulzar.
He has also published many books of poetry, starting with Gul Mosam-e-Khazan (Autumn Flower) in 1992 and the most recent Bohat Kuch Kho Gaya Hai (A lot is lost) in 2010.