By Arubiya Qadir Balouch
Ever since the Prime Minister of Pakistan met the President of Turkey and the Prime Minister of Malaysia, things changed for the Muslim Entertainment World! What triggered this change was the words of the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan. All he had to do was to tell 220 million Pakistanis to watch a series called Diriliş: Ertuğrul. As soon as these words left the mouth of the PM Imran Khan, it created a wave of craze amongst his supporters and that spread to the Muslims of India, Bangladesh, Nepal and Afghanistan. Since April 2020, the Muslims of the whole of South Asia were watching Diriliş Ertuğrul, the series.
The series was made on the Muslim Leader and conquerer Ertuğrul Ghazi and has 5 seasons of 25-35 episodes each, and each episode goes up to 2 and a half hours. The reason why Pakistanis and Kashmiris resonated with Diriliş Ertuğrul the series was because of their fight for their own Islamic State. Diriliş Ertuğrul made in Turkey starring Engin Altan Düzyatan, Didem Balçın, Esra Bilgiç, Cengiz Coşkun, Nurettin Sönmez, Cavit Çetin Güner & Burcu Kıratlı have all found work in Pakistan through major contracts in fashion, and becoming brand ambassadors of textile companies as well as construction companies.
With all this money flowing out of Pakistan, some Pakistani actors have frowned upon the fact that Turkish actors are making solid money. Fahad Mustafa, a game show host and an actor of 9 movies and many dramas who usually hops in and out of dramas, series and movies, in order to make money, stated, “Ertugrul came, sat with a lion, took [the money], and left. For them you are like this.” Fahad further stated that he is in this industry to only make money, so him being upset about money flowing to Turkey from Pakistan is but natural. However, actors like him who have completed 9 movies in comparision to Engin Altan Duzyatan who has completed 5 seasons of episodes, where each episode was equivalent to a full movie, should learn to be more graceful or create something that the public would go crazy for more naturally.
To understand this entire negative campaign in the media and entertainment industry, we need to understand what is causing this sort of an attitude? There are millions of dollars that are being sent to Turkey by renowned businesses in Pakistan because of the story, the casting, the direction as well as the costumes. Why is the craze for Ertugrul Ghazi not fizzling out? And moreover, why can’t these naysayers focus on making the industry better by correcting their redundant acting skills and taking risks.
Pakistani actors always hold themselves back in almost every scene in movies and dramas. The reason being is that they don’t want to be labelled as actors who are too open in romantic scenes like their counterparts in India and Turkey who go as far as kissing on screen as well as sex scenes. The actors fail to understand that acting is an art and that art should not be limited. That is the main reason why actors from Turkey have taken the limelight away from Pakistan and the public loves them dearly. If one looks at their private lives, the Turkish actors live a very European lifestyle, wearing bikinis, having live-in relations and living life without fearing any consequences and on top of all this they are Muslims, which is upsetting some Pakistani actors who cannot live life as openly since they are constantly worried as to what the public will think.
So, to the groups of people who keep saying rotten things against the well-deserved Turkish actors, it is high time they perform like Engin Altan Düzyatan, Didem Balçın, Esra Bilgiç, Cengiz Coşkun, Nurettin Sönmez etc. so that the people of Pakistan are compelled to go crazy after them, just like they are head over heels for the cast of Diriliş: Ertuğrul.