By Maliha Rehman
Green Entertainment – long-awaited, much-hyped, much-delayed – will finally begin streaming out content regularly from tomorrow, July 10th.
This is exciting news for the Pakistani TV audience. For about two odd years, there has been talk about a new channel, focused on creating exciting, distinctive content for TV. The ‘Green’ lineup slowly began to surface and the teasers lived up to audience’s expectations. There was Ahmed Ali Akbar enacting an honest, misjudged ‘Idiot’, Saba Qamar and Imran Abbas in what appears to be a wistful, dreamy romance, Humaima Malick roaming the desert, Ehteshamuddin and Sabeena Farooq making an unlikely romantic pair, Zahid Ahmed playing lawyer, Mawra Hocane rubbing mud on her face and so on.
One wanted to see more. Even the actors and directors working with the channel talked about how they were eager for their work to be aired out to the audience. Green Entertainment, though, has taken its time to announce when it would officially begin airing out its motley crew of dramas. This was something that I mentioned to Imran Raza, who has been helming the channel, carefully and quite passionately. He smiled at me, “If you’re truly beautiful, no one minds the wait.”
Meet Imran Raza, the creative force helming Green Entertainment
He elaborated, “We had to make sure that we were completely prepared before we came. Our strategies had to be planned out, we needed to have a consistent lineup of content ready. Perhaps we have now built up expectations which is great.”
And they aren’t afraid that they won’t be able to meet the audience’s expectations? “No, because we believe in our content,” Imran told me. “The TV industry is competitive but lately, unimaginative content has been produced. With our lineup of productions, we want to demonstrate how those very directors and actors making do with formulaic stories could actually do brilliant work when given the opportunity. We will be in competition with established platforms while our channel is still in its infancy. When we grow, we don’t want to grow alone. We want the whole industry to grow with us and when we all grow, foreign investment will grow, the audience’s vision will grow. Ultimately, we all win.”
He continued, “Our dramas all tell stories that are around us, that no one thought of telling before. In Idiot, the character actually represents a way of reform. He tells the truth, points out realities that others don’t want to talk about and people laugh at him, often not realizing the philosophy behind what he is saying. The drama is a social commentary, a dark comedy, a genre that can be very difficult to pull off.”
“There are so many other stories; there is an elegance to Tumharey Husn ke Naam, a universality to 101 Talaqain which will make it relatable to both men and women and a unique story of struggle in Nauroz.”
The daily schedules of the dramas have now been released and very interestingly, Imran had revealed to me that much thought had been put into which drama would be slotted for what day. “There is science to how each day connects with a mood,” he outlined. “Every day, the majority of the audience has a particular mindset. For example, Monday may give you the feeling of starting out on a journey. By the middle of the week, most people begin to unwind. If a story syncs with a certain mindset, the views increase.”
The regular streaming of dramas has been preceded by the release of a number of original scores composed specifically for different projects. Some of them have been beautiful, my favorite being ‘Ankhain’ for the upcoming drama Kabli Pulao sung by Rahat Fateh Ali Khan, composed by Sahir Ali Bagga and written by Imran himself. Is it necessary for present-day dramas to have OST’s? “Yes, often it is,” Imran said. “Earlier, dramas would only be about 14 episodes long. As stories became longer, situations increased and it became necessary to emphasize some of those situations with the help of songs.”
“Songs are so essential to the subcontinent. The Urdu-speaking audience is a huge one and they gravitate towards music. If a story isn’t based on emotions, then perhaps a song will not be composed for it. But usually, you need a song, a good song, to build the story. Sometimes, a song is entirely situational and in that case, it may not have an extensive impact, limited to the audience that is particularly watching that drama. At other times, there are songs based on feelings which connect not just with the story but also with anyone who just randomly listens to it. Those are the songs that become popular, get played in cars and heard again and again.”
How long are the Green Entertainment dramas going to be? “As long as it is required,” Imran disclosed. “The maximum length of our dramas right now is 40 but there are some that are much shorter. We won’t be dishonest to the customer, unnecessarily prolonging a story. That’s our commitment to them.”
He continued, “You know, when we started creating content for Green Entertainment, a lot of people told me that things don’t work this way and certain formulas need to be followed. They said to me that it can’t be done this way. It was actually because they couldn’t do it this way. Jo kehtay hain ho nahin sakta, unn say hota hee nahin hai!”
Green Entertainment, on the other hand, is intending to prove that, indeed, things can be done differently. One hopes that the bar for entertainment on TV does get pushed up with the plethora of content that is going to start streaming out. Tomorrow, we’ll get to see what the hype is all about.
What do you think?