Over the last few years, Pakistani soaps have found popularity across the border for, among other things, having a finite episode limit and letting characters go to bed and wake up without tonnes of makeup. It’s also the place where Fawad Khan, who some might call Pakistan’s best import, found his footing before he arrived in Bollywood.
In the video below, Wahab Khan, a YouTube creator, describes the real difference between a Pakistani drama and an Indian one. For anyone who watched Indian television, the reenactment of a scene from an Indian drama is spot on.
In The Viral Fever’s The Making of a Decade Long Daily Soap, Uday Nayak, channel head and ratings maniac, disagrees with Wahab Khan’s sentiment. “There is so much variety,” Nayak declares. “You see saas-bahus in green sarees on Colours. In blue sarees on Sony, and in salwar kameez on Bindaas. And in this intensely creative market, my first responsibility was to get high...TRPs.”
YouTube is filled with moments from Indian soap operas. From a dramatic Indian soap opera moment and a grand entrance of an Indian soap opera character to a dramatic acting and slap to the most dramatic scene ever. Even HBO’s much-loved Game of Thrones has been re-imagined as an Indian soap opera.
Of course, it’s not only Indian television shows that have a melodrama overdose problem. Mexico has its version. American daytime television has its own. One example shows that the Game of Thrones (read Red Wedding) comparison might not be too far off.
But the best thing about soaps? The amount of comedy you can mine from them. Here are Conan O’Brien and Andy Richter dubbing over Return of the Pearl Princess, one of the most popular television shows in China.
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