Currently, we are witnessing Turkish Drama Ertugrul taking the internet by storm and we don’t expect this ruckus to calm down any soon. People are in love with the script, with the characters, and with the visuals. All justified. The series is just beautiful. However, it has imposed a threat on our own artist’s work.
Many insecure of losing their space and infuriated by the underlying injustice, came up and spoke against the series. This, too, is justified. For actors who have recently tried to claim their space and make room for cinematic art in Pakistan are being sidelined.
We hear you, support you, understand you
However, there are people in public who don’t understand the intention of these actors and go on to misjudge their statements. In response to that, these artists have to apologize, explain their statements. Lowkey trying to point at Maulana Tariq Jameel’s case as well. However, the treatment with these artists is much worse. Whether they’re going through a divorce or planning another wedding, they are kept forcibly under the limelight, in order to make a statement that the media can comment on.
Similar was the case was with Pakistan’s legendary actress Reema Khan who gave a statement on Ertugrul that she had to justify later on.
So what did she say?
“Our artist Shaan raised his voice that on our national channel we should not air content of another country. When you have your own content, and your own artists are sitting at home but still you are buying content from others and promoting it. This thing hurts so much. Because the artists of this country are paying tax, not foreign artists.”
Perfectly makes sense but slightly on a negative note.
There is another argument that says art knows no boundaries. Wherever it comes from, it sits and entertains its observers. But Reema Khan, who was a struggling artist once, went through a lot to claim her position, found this unfair to have given up the space that a Pakistani artist holds.
Her explanation
Later she explained her statement, “Turkish drama (Dirilis Ertugrul) which is running these days, I am not against its history. How is this possible I can say anything against a drama from which knowledge of Muslim history is increasing? However it is Turkish, Malaysian, Saudi Arabia’s content it doesn’t matter, if it is good for our knowledge I will praise it.”
Then she went on to further add, “What I meant was, if this is running on our national TV then there must be a barter system which means PTV has some old good dramas in their archives which must be dubbed in Turkish and sold to them. In this way, our revenue will increase which will help our technicians and directors who don’t have work.”
We don’t hate her for saying what she said when all she did was defend her own artists. In fact, we only respect her more for demanding to promote our work in foreign cinema. However, the problem lies with the people wanting Halima Sultan to be questioned about her dressing. Weird. If nothing else, Reema Khan should be glad that some of that non-sense is redirected from Pakistan’s media to some other.
What do you think of the story? Let us know in the comments section below!
