Whatever we see on television moves on to reflect and shape common prejudices in the society. Perceptions are influenced by media content and in a society like Pakistan things like domestic violence, age gaps, problematic families, extra marital affairs and all such tabooed subjects, only flare up the misogynistic views.
Recently a few stars connected with the industry have started questioning the casting norms and stereotypes in the dramas we see on screen.
Stereotypes On Television Questioned By Stars
If we look into our television dramas that have aired over the past two to three decades, we get an idea of the stereotypical content we have been fed for ages. Women have been targeted as victims of domestic abuse based on their color and dowry problem.
If not that, older women have been typecast in older roles while the male actors belonging to the same age group, continue to star as the leads. Take a very common example of Farq. Sehar Khan happens to be half of Faysal Quraishi’s age and yet the later has been starring with her as the lead. But on the other hand, Laila Wasti, who happens to be 5 years younger than Faysal in age, has started to appear in dramas where she plays the mother to female actors who happen to star along Quraishi as his heroin.
This leads to the belief that women age earlier than men and a female actress cannot be cast as the lead in a drama once they cross a certain age threshold whereas men, who are older than them continue to appear as heroes. And it is not only us, recently actress Mahnoor Baloch, who is as graceful as ever, questioned the same.
Mahnoor Baloch Questions Casting Practices
Mahnoor Baloch has not been making many appearances in dramas recently. The actress with her acting credentials needs no reference when it comes to her craft but according to Mahnoor, the Pakistani drama industry lacks diversity having cast women in a set type of roles once they age. “It’s a pity that our industry is still developing in which a certain type of role is designed for women, in which the same roles are shown, for them its age limits are also set,” said Baloch, in one of her recent interviews.
Bushra Ansari Talks of Violence on TV
Not only Mahnoor Baloch, veteran actress Bushra Ansari also recently questioned the type of content we have been bombarded with on our television screens. Ansari talked about the repeated occurrences of scenes and storylines filled with domestic abuse and slaps delivered to female characters. According to Bushra Ansari, who has been portraying the role of Maa Begum in popular drama serial Tere Bin and has delivered her fair share of slaps to the actress, “The dramatic and aggressive character like Maa Begum is challenging for me as aggression and negativity are not a natural part of my personality.”
Ansari shared how it gets agitating for her when she has to deliver slaps to fellow female characters as the scripts demand so and hopes that violence on TV will be limited to criminals who deserve it.
Behroze Sabzwari Mentions Dragged Meaningless Scripts
It is great to see our stars waking up to realize that our drama audience is not as insensible and nonsensical as the markers have labelled them to be. Recently veteran actor Behroz Sabzwari also questioned the problematic storylines that we have been watching on television. For him, meaningless scripts whether serious or comedy are nothing but a drag. Sabzwari talked about the recently ended Ramzan special Chand Tara on Hum TV stating how it was a complete drag with a storyline a far cry from reality.
What We Think
It is common knowledge the content creators use stereotypes to present viewers with something they can easily relate to but what they often forget is the fact that such representation, that only brings across one side of the story can have more negative impacts that a positive one.
Viewers form opinion from what they see on television and it is high time that our television industry and the bigger players in the ocean focus more on their responsibility of bringing a positive change and making a constructive society rather than raking in TRPs and moolah with stereotypical representation of gender roles and topics like domestic abuse and meaningless storylines.
Let us know if you agree with our thoughts about stereotypical representations on television and how do you think our stars questioning such content will make a difference in the future?
