By A GUEST REVIEWER

Pakistani drama is a phenomenon that has been an enigma since the time of its inception. An enigma that has not only shown what happens around us but has been a greater source of what we want to watch, experience, see through, and by what means we basically want to nurture the escapist in all of us. It is no hidden fact how our dramas through ages have been a successful reflection of what society has gone through, whatever changes that it has demanded, what people have admired and listed the things that were needed to be mended. Similarly, it has undoubtedly been farsighted, showing us the larger picture and what happens when everything has an ideal solution.
. But you know what, lets save these hard core insights for some other time. For now, I want you to focus on something really interesting. I am sure, many of you have always wondered what would our ever favorite drama have been like without the saas bahu element, the glamour and most importantly the exotic locations, the places that we have never ever dreamt of visiting ourselves, the corners of mother Earth that were unexplored, unreachable till the wide reach of our very own drama industry became the platter and we started relishing these visual treats. For many of us who have not been that lucky enough to travel to places, for the people who only have access to different places through other people’s adventurous tales or some travel magazine, Pakistani drama have brought every destination so close..The world has become such a small place that we are just a flip of a channel away from traveling to any place, be it our very own Kashmir or northern areas, or some international wonders like spain in ghost or the beauty of New York State in Mata e Jaan and Baltistan shown in Dayar-e-Dil.
The marriage between Pakistani drama and tourism started since the early 90’s when drama producers like Sultana Siddiqi, Babar Javed and Asif Raza Mir dared to shoot a larger chunk of their drama in Europe, America and London. A thing which was next to impossible was done in that time and the Pakistani drama industry never looked back.Dramas like Des-Pardes, Aansoo followed in that same era. Dramas like Marvi and Dasht explored what was hidden in the realms of our own country. As time passed, the need for ‘eye candy’ increased and hence the entire spree of hum television came in with their trend setting serial from Man-o-Salwa to Khamoshi to Lahassil and…and? There is no ‘and’..it is still going on.

Gradually the locations that were only seen and visited through the silver screen became accessible to common people. People got acquainted with destinations and a large number of people started moving to these international places. With that turn in the entire scenario, in response to a massive increase in middle-class and non-resident Pakistani audiences, especially in the UK and North America, film-makers began addressing the desires and anxieties of the Pakistani diaspora

The Pakistani drama industry has undoubtedly grown and matured in how to make good dramas. The grandeur of drama has been nourished and supported by filmmakers in such a way that drama industry has today become one of the largest growing businesses in Pakistan . In the last couple of decades, Pakistani drama industry’s footprint has grown considerably beyond borders of the country. Sometimes the reason is the above mentioned but at almost all the other times, it is only because overseas shoots enhance a drama glamour quotient. With the increasing globalization of our drama industry in its entirety, the need for the international look of the drama has increased. To satisfy those instincts in the audience, drama makers have always tried to explore the locations that are rare and even the ones that were always considered hard to survive. Classic examples for such drama is Ghost shot in Spain and Khamoshi shot in Holland with the successful Lahassil shot in London,. With time, drama-makers have started exploring more offbeat locations that give drama an exotic edge and where the choice of locations also indicates new or potential viewership for Pakistani drama.

This is a concept which is specific to Pakistani drama but this concept is stretched out to Hollywood Bollywood with equal vigor. Hollywood also has with time tried to explore different rare locations and has even headed to the Middle Eastern Countries and Asian Subcontinent . There have been stories like Argo in Iran and The Darjeeling Limited that have been set in India completely even after being Hollywood productions. The crossover of such a kind has since ages proved beneficial for the tourism industry of both the worlds. The emergence of the new era of tourism inter twined with Cinema has led not only to its growth but has also made audiences more tolerant towards different things, has led to an exploration of stories, nuances, experiences and most importantly people. Cinema has brought the world closer and we no longer think find ourselves alien to some of the most exotic places that the Mother Nature has in store for us. We are not afraid of exploring the world because of the second hand experience that we get through drama which is understood by everyone.
The tourism industry has grown through the process of film making. We know that because ministries of different places have asked Bollywood and Hollywood to shoot movies at their locations time and again. The influx of Turkish plays has played a vital role in the tourism of turkey. Mera sultan and ishq-e-manoon has not only created a desire among people to visit Turkey but it has also inhibited our own drama industry from shooting abroad. We are not seeing many plays shot abroad as we used to witness in early 2000s

By  Guest Reviewer ..UMAIR