“Turkish period drama has been popular across the region for a while now,” she says. Laaleen Sukhera writes extensively on Pakistan and is based in Lahore. But no one has ever referred to them as a cultural phenomenon, perhaps in part because the target audience for soap operas is overwhelmingly female?Įrtugrul offers an alternative narrative to a country with a majority population of under-35s to connect with a past empire associated with conquest rather than fighting against colonialism. Turkish soap operas set in modern times and based – as soap operas are – around family drama, betrayal and over-the-top acting have also been incredibly popular. This is not the first time that Turkish programmes have become popular outside of Turkey. On the one hand, Pakistani fans are exposed to Islamic history, on the other they are exposed to the culture of modern-day, urban, secular Turkey. Comments on the actors’ Instagram pages have seen Pakistani fans show ire that some of the female stars wear non-conservative dress and that one actor is seen petting his dog.īut perhaps even that is a part and parcel of the phenomenon. It is seen as a genuine cultural phenomenon that sparks internet memes, countless social media posts and even Pakistani fans getting upset that the actors in the show are not as Islamic as they would like them to be. The YouTube channel has millions watching.
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That it is a popular TV show is beyond doubt.
It marks neither the affirmation of such a past, nor any crisis of identity. Ertugrul’s popularity marks an engagement of Pakistanis with the notion of a glorious Muslim past. The bonds are historic, military and strategic and since the emergence of AKP under Turkish leader Erdogan, they have increasingly taken on cultural dimensions. “For decades, modern secular Turkey and modern Pakistan have been extremely close allies. “Turkish history and South Asian history are not ‘faraway’ by any stretch of the imagination,” says Mosharraf Zaidi, senior fellow at Pakistani think-tank Tabadlab. Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan, right, and Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan Įrtugrul in many ways speaks to the identity of Muslim Pakistan, but does it speak to a void in that identity that requires affirmation from something that happened in a faraway land, a long time ago? Is Pakistan South Asian Muslim? Or is it based in Arab roots as some leaders have pushed? Or is it closer to Turkish culture in origin?
It was not money that drove the prime minister’s decision, but concern that Islamic values were being eroded in Pakistan, and the fact that Pakistan has always paid respect to leaders of the Muslim world.ĭeference to the ancient leaders of the Islamic world has always been part of Pakistan’s identity and often the root of its contradictory nature. It was instantly popular when it aired with Urdu translation on the first day of the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, and it only continues to get bigger. His move made Ertugrul accessible to a far bigger audience and subsequently helped make it even more of a hit TV show internationally. In praising the show and ordering Pakistan’s national broadcaster to dub it into Urdu, Prime Minister Khan unwittingly became, if not the show’s executive producer, certainly something close. The very nature of our insatiable appetite for TV drama means fans move on to the next big thing. Perhaps that should have been the end of it. Since the show first launched in Turkey in 2014, it has become a hit and a money-spinner for all involved, also airing on Netflix, with Turkish and English subtitles, since 2018.
The premise is set, historical facts are manipulated for dramatic effect, and the production values are suitably overblown. The scene is set for his tribe to invoke Islam and triumph against all odds. The show takes the name of the father and presents his tribe as a band of plucky rebels caught between Christian crusaders, Byzantine warriors, and fearsome Mongols. It is based on the life of the 13th-century Muslim Oghuz Turk leader, who was the father of Osman I, the founder of the Ottoman Empire.
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That the drama series in question is Turkish and not Pakistani only adds to the intrigue.ĭirilis: Ertugrul is a big-budget series that depicts the prehistory of the Ottoman Empire. And with it, he unleashed a phenomenon that has since gripped his nation and become the talking point among fans and critics alike. But, in October 2019, that is exactly what Pakistani leader Imran Khan did. One rarely expects the prime minister of a nation to become a cheerleader for a television show.
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