We see a debacle in Pakistani films because Pakistani movies were unable to compete with the neighboring country’s cinema. The way cinema is rising in countries like Iran, India, and Turkey is because they have phenomenal writers who can write exceptional content for films.After witnessing Lollywood’s downfall we observe that Pakistani dramas also lost their charm and impact on the minds of their audiences. People are now fed up with seeing stories revolve around a damsel in distress.
Our dramas have very few topics to touch souls, most of the plots are about topics of house matters like in-law issues and complicated love stories. Our makers hesitate to do experiments. They are mainly focused on repeated formula drama, where a young boy falls in love with a girl and then how society stops them from getting married. They lack versatility.
They portray women as a substance and just to gather sympathy. This is 2025 and today’s women are more powerful than ever before. Today in metro cities like Lahore and Karachi women prefer to work outside the home. They are now street smart, not made to sit at home. Have the guts to get their goals. How can these women and girls relate themselves to the characters who they observe in dramas?
I feel we need writers who can write like Jane Austen, Jane Austen mostly represents women as independent. People like Umera Ahmed have tried to bring change by writing characters like Kashaf in Zindagi Gulzar Hai, which was a huge hit, The drama proves that not all women require someone’s shoulder to conquer in life.
It’s not the fault of today’s writer to write limited, Unfortunately, the commercial aspect matters the most. Because dramas with sympathetic stories get more ratings, Producers encourage writers to write about poor female-oriented characters.
There was a time when PTV produced shows on topics like Addiction in Inkar, Dhuwan based on the crime world, and Alpha Bravo Charlie about the life of army men. These types of shows were hit dramas of the 90’s era. That’s why experts consider the 90s the best era and still 80s and 90s kids remember dramas that were popular before 2000.
I was a student of English literature back in university. I have read Jane Austen, Oscar Wild, Virginia Wolf, and other great writers. I believe that they were amazing writers, Pakistani writers should need to adopt their way of writing. They create magic by writing beautiful thoughts. I remember I read the story The Little Willow which was about a late army man who couldn’t meet his love and he used to write love letters for his fiance but the end was so tragic as the army man died in World War II and a girl lost all the interest in life. I want our writers to make such things.