All the craze around Ertuğrul: Ghazi in Pakistan is self-evident. The play’s YouTube channel is rushing past the 250 million views mark, and it is not yet even a month since the first episode of the Urdu-dubbed Turkish show started to stream. Galaxy Lollywood has been extensively covering all the hysteria surrounding the show, from the sometimes divergent celebrity reactions to the more surreal ones from the few who took it to be all too real.

Not the first time

Yes, the Turkish show’s popularity is real. What is not as well-known is that most current Ertuğrul viewers in the country are well, kind of late to the party: The play has already been broadcast on Hum Network’s Hum Sitaray channel, that too, a whopping 5 years back.

Aired with the original title Dirilis: Ertuğrul (Resurrection: Ertuğrul), the show’s first season (dubbed in Urdu) in Pakistan premiered in August 2015 on Hum Sitaray. This was during the period when Turkish shows were generally enjoying massive popularity following the success of Ishq-e-Memnun. 

However, it didn’t receive much fame and acclaim in Pakistan back then – which might be in part due to its cable run on a network that is not as well-known as the leading drama channels like Hum, ARY Digital, and Geo.

Also worth noting is that the Turkish original itself went on air around late 2014 on its home turf, so at that point in time in 2015 perhaps the word of mouth too was not too strong in the country, and generally across the globe too, to generate any kind of interest. Currently, the curiosity and hype has been propelled to an all-time high by various celebrities and politicians, including the PM himself, who are actively endorsing the show and encouraging the viewers to watch it, that too during a time period when most are staying at home or working remotely.

Besides, Ertuğrul: Ghazi is also simultaneously being telecasted on PTV’s terrestrial network, which has a massive reach even in remote rural areas where cable programming might not be available.

As far as the audience reception of Dirilis: Ertuğrul on Hum Sitaray is concerned, the show didn’t generate enough of a response for Hum Network to consider airing the subsequent seasons. Importantly, back in 2015 the network didn’t stream it on their YouTube channel, something which PTV has, and which has proven crucial towards lending the show its hype. The overall digital audience too was a bit lower back then and as they say, there is a time for everything, so perhaps this was the show’s kismet.

Final word

More than anything, Ertrugul’s second time’s a charm run shows that good content also needs the right branding and push to make itself stand out among the plethora of viewing options. There’s a reason why advertisers use celebrities or people with some amount of credibility to push their products and build their brand. Possibly, the same has happened here. But bear in mind, the play has earned all that acclaim because of its unique theme, its execution, and the experience it creates for its audience – something which no amount of branding or endorsement can help with.