Anwar Maqsood Is Not Happy with the Entertainment Industry

The renowned writer, Anwar Maqsood, thinks that “ratings have ruined media freedom”. He has been vocal about the poor quality of content in the industry lately. Talking about the comedy, he said, “the more shamelessness, the higher the ratings.”

His recent comments about the drama industry are rather harsh and true to a great extent. In a recent interview, Mr. Maqsood revealed that he no longer watches Pakistani dramas and also highlighted the reason for it.

Mr. Maqsood said, “Urdu literature doesn’t have drama. We have a few, but strictly speaking, we can’t call them drama either. There are a few by Agha Hashar, there’s Anarkali by Taj Sahab, Khwaja Sahab’s dramas, but these dramas are such that if you’re watching them, on stage or television, you enjoy them, but they don’t have a place in the library.

We also don’t have much fiction in our literature. We had four to five people who’d write stories, who are all gone.”

He added, “Now people aren’t coming in because these gadgets have taken away the love of reading and writing. People want everything from one single device. They don’t want to buy books.”

He further said, “No one is writing comedy anymore. Not one person. This is the case all over the world. You’ll find many serious writers, but not many who deal with comedy.”

About the freedom of media, Anwar Maqsood said, “A lot of prominent journalists were upset with me when I said during a press conference with Pervez Musharraf Sahab, ‘You’ve given media freedom, but you should have done this once the country had a higher level of education.

70-80% of our population is uneducated. For them, media freedom is equivalent to destruction.’ There are so many stories on TV now that uneducated people watch and then want to emulate. They are just plays, treat them as such.”

He concluded his remarks with the statement, “There are so many plays that even I can’t watch. Ratings have ruined media freedom. The more shamelessness, pointless sentences, and disrespect, the higher the rating.”

What do you think about the contemporary content on Pakistani media.