In the YouTube comments of the Pakistani television drama “Sher” (“Lion”), several Indian viewers are doing roll calls of attendance: “Who else is watching from India with a VPN like me?” writes one person in Hindi.
The show is followed loyally by audiences on both sides of the Line of Control, the de facto border dividing the volatile Kashmir region between India and Pakistan. The area erupted in fighting this past spring after a terrorist attack killed more than 20 tourists in the town of Pahalgam.
Amid the conflict, which ended in a ceasefire in May, both governments launched drone strikes and engaged in cross-border shelling. The Indian government took an additional step, restricting access to a number of Pakistani YouTube channels that publish “Sher” and other popular TV dramas. This approach is not new; Bollywood movies have been banned in Pakistani cinemas since 2019, when the two sides came to blows after a terrorist attack in Pulwama. Pakistani television is the latest casualty.
Why We Wrote This
Art can help build bridges between rivals – or, in the case of India and Pakistan, to remind audiences how much culture the two nations still share. But in times of fighting, it’s often one of the first things to go, as shown by ongoing film and television bans.
The enduring popularity of Pakistani dramas in India and of Indian movies in Pakistan is partially explained by the mutual intelligibility of Hindi and Urdu – the lingua francas of India and Pakistan, respectively. But there is also a sense that the people of both countries have much more in common than that which divides them. The nuclear-armed rivals used to be one entity – British India – before the 1947 partition created two independent states, displacing millions of people in the process.
Indian journalist Karan Thapar says one way to foster better relations between Indian and Pakistan is to permit the exchange of art and culture to flourish.
“There is an affinity going back centuries if not millennia of people who have lived side by side, who understand each other better than they probably understand any other people in the world, who speak the same language, eat the same food, and suffer the same weather,” he says.
From video rental to YouTube streaming
Pakistani television dramas have been popular in India going back at least as far as the 1980s, when they used to be rented out on video cassettes. There was also a brief period beginning in 2014 when they were broadcast by the Indian television channel Zee Zindagi, before a 2016 terror attack in Indian-administered Kashmir prompted the broadcaster to drop all Pakistani programming from its lineup.
Since then, several Pakistani TV networks have set up YouTube channels that publish serials free to viewers around the world, and make money on digital advertisement.
But shortly after the Pahalgam attack, the Indian government banned access to these channels, as well as a number of Pakistani news outlets and celebrity profiles.
As of this week, popular channels such as Hum TV and ARY Digital are still inaccessible. Workarounds exist, including using a virtual private network (VPN) to make it seem as though you’re accessing the videos from another country, or turning to one of the bootleg streamers that have cropped up since the ban. But that’s little comfort to the networks that produce these dramas, says Humayun Saeed, a Pakistani actor and television producer.
“This is a really big revenue stream for channel owners, because a lot of the viewership comes from India,” he says. “So [the ban] certainly had an impact.”
At the same time, Pakistan’s movie industry is feeling the impact of the Bollywood ban.
Pakistani cinemas shutter
For all its TV drama prowess, Pakistan has never produced enough films to keep its theaters profitable, so the 2019 ban on Indian-produced films hit cinemas hard. An estimated 40% of movie screens have gone dark since 2018, as cinemas downsize or shut down altogether. That number is expected to grow.
“India is the only country which makes films in our language, and they make a lot of them,” says film producer Nadeem Mandviwalla, who used to operate one of Karachi’s last cinemas, before closing shop last October. “Since 2019, we’ve lost half of our raw material. How do you think a factory is going to run with 50% less raw material? Obviously, it can’t.”
Authorities are trying to address the crisis by injecting money into the local film industry. The government of Punjab – Pakistan’s most populous province – has approved 2 billion Pakistani rupees (about $7 million) grant to help producers defray the cost of making films. But even with the stimulus, it’s hard to envision a future in which the Pakistani film industry can meet the shortfall created by the Bollywood ban.
Mr. Mandviwalla also notes that, although the ban has done a great deal of damage to Pakistani cinemas, it has not stopped dedicated fans from accessing these movies online, using similar workarounds that allow Indian audiences to stay up to date on their favorite Pakistani dramas.
But looking at the lineup of recent Bollywood films, there are signs this cultural affinity has begun to fray.
Widening cultural rift
Several Indian blockbusters depict Pakistan as a state sponsor of terrorism, and portray Muslims as depraved and uncivilized. That reflects a strong undercurrent within the Hindu nationalism of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and his ruling Bharatiya Janata Party.
“We know that artists are as prone to siding with power as anyone else,” says Nisha Abdullah, a Muslim playwright based in Bengaluru, India. “When the politics of the time reflects the Muslim as ‘the other,’ then obviously that is reflected in Bollywood as well.”
Meanwhile, Pakistan’s powerful military chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, recently told overseas Pakistanis to pass the nation’s story on to their children, emphasizing how “our forefathers thought we were different from Hindus in every possible aspect of life.”
As this rift widens, art could be a tool to bridge the gap. But India and Pakistan must resist “dragging artists into jingoism,” says Pakistani television actress and director Samina Peerzada of the extreme patriotism expressed by both sides in recent years.
“Every human being has a right to express themselves through art,” she says. “War and hate has never healed any nation.”
