The Rise and Fall of Ramadan Dramas—Ramadan is a time of blessings and prayers for Muslims, but for Pakistani television, it has turned into a big business opportunity. Pakistani television changes its whole colour and tone for the month of Ramadan, but in the last few years, Ramadan programming has also become a victim of formulas. All dramas are generally made on formula, and the same is the case for Ramadan programming now.
Ramadan dramas which saw a big high on rating chats have been going through a sudden decline over the years. The public used to wait for Ramadan drama announcements every year but the craze is dying down and here we analyze why these shows are not performing with as much hype as they used to previously.
Commercialism at its Peak
After the massive success of the Barat series, Suno Chanda became the modern pioneer of Ramadan dramas. This sparked a trend, leading to a surge in Ramadan dramas every year. With millions of viewers tuning in for quality family entertainment, advertisers quickly took notice. However, over time, these dramas gradually shifted from storytelling to full-fledged advertisement campaigns.
While sponsorship is necessary to keep these productions viable, the blatant commercialism became hard to ignore. From milk and cheese products to mobile phones, excessive product placements started creeping into the scenes. This not only felt tacky but also disrupted the viewing experience for fans. Instead of being immersed in the magical world of fiction and family dynamics, viewers were constantly reminded that they were watching a sales pitch rather than a heartfelt story.
One such example is below:
Mismatched Pairings
The leading pair’s chemistry is what pulls the audience to a drama and that is an established fact. What made dramas like Suno Chanda, Chupke Chupke and even Chaudhary and Sons the hits that they were was the chemistry that the lead actors showed on screen. In recent times, Fairy Tale also had massive viewership due to the lead couple’s chemistry. That is something that is not being replicated anymore.
Many young actors are now thrown together to make a drama and there is no story to support their chemistry. This puts off the audience and thus the viewership of Ramadan dramas is declining day by day. There are no Arsal and Ajiya or Meenu and Fazi anymore.
Repetitive Storylines
How many cousin marriages can the viewers see before they get fed up? Yes, getting two cousins and marrying them off is the easiest storyline to come up with and like real life in our country, we see that happening in our dramas too. But at this point, most of these stories are being repeated year after year. The queen of Ramadan dramas, writer Saima Akram Chaudhary also took a break and stated in an interview that she stopped writing these shows as she felt that she had nothing new to write and the stories were getting pretty repetitive.
The Not So Scientific Formula
What worked in Suno Chanda was emancipation of a girl and realisation of her dreams. What worked in Hum Tum were soft male characters who empowered their women and what worked in Chaudhary and Sons was how generational trauma needs to be stopped and not transferred to the next generations. But channels thought that putting two cousin households together with the leads fighting all the time till they fall in love is what worked with the audience and they are replicating it every year in two dramas per channel. Result: Significant decline in viewership and hype.
Ticket To Stardom
Year on year Ramadan dramas started getting high ratings and the main leads became overnight stars. This is why they started becoming a launch pad for star kids to become an overnight success. People are now signing on to Ramadan dramas as a ticket to overnight stardom. Casting is not being done according to the characters. Yes, sometimes it works but most of the time it is backfiring. The makers are also now using old hit pairs to get eyeballs like they did with Aas Paas and Dil Wali Gali Mein this year.
No Ramadan Spirit
The Ramadan dramas started connecting to the audience because they were embedded in Ramadan culture, There was an underlying Ramadan storyline going on in the shows. It made sense and fans were able to connect with it with respect to them being marketed as Ramadan shows. The departure of Ramadan from these shows initially also made sense but many stories are now totally disconnected from the basic Ramadan premise and this takes away from the overall viewing experience. This is how they were incorporating Ramadan spirit in the shows before:
A serious re-invention is required now in order to bring back the charm of Ramadan dramas and makers need to stop recycling scripts!
