HYDERABAD: Paki­stan’s senior drama artist Tauqeer Nasir has said that today’s drama is facing crisis as it is being produced in haste without preparation, rehearsal and content, adding that Pakistani drama needs to be message-oriented. There is no script today in drama and devotion on part of artists is missing, he added.

He was speaking to reporters at a reception hosted in his honour by Hyderabad Press Club on Monday. “Pakistani drama witnessed its golden era in 1980-90 as it was a passion for many. Pakistan Television (PTV) produced glorious content in every serial and luminaries who took Pakistani drama to the pinnacle of success were left with their services unsung. PTV did not serve them well rather it committed injustice [with them]”, said Nasir, whose drama career spanned over 41 years. He had served as director general Pakistan National Council of Arts (PNCA) and lately appeared in some private dramas as well.

“Renowned artists, who gave identity to drama, when [they] got ill and faced economic issues, their condition went unnoticed. It was indeed painful as PTV didn’t do justice to them although they devoted their lives [to] Pakistan Television that used to be seen in every nook and corner of the country. PTV had sucked their blood,” he said.

Today, he said, private channels had become financially stable and prosperous. “I remember earning Rs800 after playing a lead role in 1978 drama. Artists served and rendered sacrifices for Pakistan,” he remarked. He regretted one thing, saying that today there was money, but passion was missing and when there was passion, there was no money for artists.

He did not mince words to say that drama was being produced without any content. “Drama is being produced in haste. A writer today can write six dramas in two months. Haseena Moin, Fatima Surayya Bajia and Bano Aapa or Ashfaq Ahmed Sahib used to take a year to write one serial,” he said. He added: “Homework is not seen in drama and that’s why no one can see Waris, Jangloos, Jangal, Raiza Raiza. Now a drama is just recorded on monitor where a man plays video games on it while being least concerned about situation of the given scene. That was not the case in the past as it required plenty of work for an artist to do justice with the given role,” he said.

He said that today there was no Shahzad Khalil and “we can’t produce another Roohi Bano”. “There is none to guide an artist as to what acting is all about. We don’t have dramas that used to leave their imprints in the past,” he stated.

He said that message-oriented drama was needed today. “We need content produced by Ashfaq Ahmed to depict a social issue”, he said and added that everyone was vying for money. He sarcastically said today’s drama was like a truck which was plied on road regardless of the kind of load it carried.

He observed that if he had done 500 plays, he had refused 1,000 because of their content. “I also admit that I had featured in plays which were just sheer waste of time and I did it only on requests of some friends,” he said.

Published in Dawn, March 11th, 2020