The private channels churned out innumerable cliched-ridden, snooze-inducing dramas all year through but there were some dramas in particular this year which were especially disappointing not only because they failed to deliver on every level but also because the viewers were not expecting these dramas to be as bad as they turned out to be. Some of the worst dramas of this year were also the most hyped and the most awaited dramas of the year. When the producers put in so much time, effort and finances into promoting a certain drama then the viewers very often fall for the trap especially when the actors and directors who the viewers have so much faith in are part of such a drama, the expectations sky-rocket immediately. Most of the dramas in this list can also be termed as star-studded disasters because they boasted of a star-studded casts which couldn’t save the day!

Here is a list of the worst dramas of this year.

Bin Roye

Writer: Farhat Ishtiaq
Director: Shehzad Kashmiri
Producer: MD Productions
Channel: HUM
Cast: Mahira Khan, Humayun Saeed, Armeena Rana Khan, Adnan Malik, Zeba Bakhtiar, Javed Sheikh, Saman Ansari and others.

Bin Roye had all the ingredients to be a blockbuster; a renowned writer, a talented director, a big production house and a star-studded cast but the final product was anything but impressive. Bin Roye started off on a good note and promised to be an emotional drama but the haphazard pace, script which lacked clarity and depth, weak direction and choppy editing made Bin Roye one of the biggest disappointments of this year. This drama had total of 5 episodes which truly made an impact and were well put together. Mahira Khan and Hamayun Saeed’s chemistry made few of the episodes bearable and even entertaining, apart from that Bin Roye lacked the dramatic peaks which were necessary to keep the viewers looking forward to more. The viewers waited for years to watch this drama and eventually were relieved when it finally ended!!

Shehrnaz

Writer: Hoor Shamaeel
Director: Syed Ahmed Kamran
Producer: Mastermind Production
Channel: Urdu1
Cast: Ayeza Khan, Alyy Khan, Farhan Malhi, Imran Ashraf and others.

Shehrnaz was Ayeza Khan’s comeback play in a different role and also Danish Taimoor’s first drama as a producer. Like many other dramas in this list, this drama too appeared to be promising in the first few episodes. Shehrnaz was the story of a girl Shehnaz who dreamed of being a star one day. In the beginning Shehrnaz was shown as someone who did not compromise on her principles and was very sensible but gradually her character took an about turn; her foolish decisions and the fact that a man who did not value her came before everyone and everything else turned her character and the entire drama into a joke! It was almost as if the first 6 episodes were written down with a specific purpose in mind and all the other episodes were completely purposeless and terribly annoying. Viewers who fell in love with Shehrnaz’s character, fell out of love just as easily and stopped watching this drama altogether. The drama lost its charm completely and the biggest disappointment was that Ayeza Khan decided to make a comeback with such a drama.

Teri Raza

Writer: Naila Ansari
Director: Aabis Raza
Producer: Big Bang Productions
Channel: ARY Digital
Cast: Sanam Baloch, Surmad Sultan Khoosat, Shehroz Sabzwari, Shaheen Khan and others

It won’t be an overstatement but ever since this drama was announced, it garnered a lot of hype because after years and years, Sanam Baloch was making a come back. All those viewers who have been a fan of Sanam Baloch’s acting were not only excited but were eager to see her back on screen in a proper serial after such a long time but unfortunately, it ended up being a disaster. The fact that the story of this drama is so weak is one thing, but to see Sanam Baloch choosing it as a come back project disappointed her fans a great deal.

There is absolutely nothing about this drama that works or makes sense. The theme of this drama revolves around a girl, despite being in love with someone else chooses to get married to her cousin because of Istikhara. In a single sentence description, the story doesn’t sound so ridiculous but once you’d tune to it, you will see how many flaws this story and all the characters have. To see Sanam Baloch choosing to play such a character which makes no sense whatsoever makes one question what went wrong there that she decided to be a part of such a project which offers nothing to the viewers because they expected a lot from an actress of her caliber.

Mor Mahal

Writer: Surmed Sehbai
Director: Surmad Sultan Khoosat
Producer: Baber Javed
Channel: Geo TV
Cast: Umair Jaswal, Jana Malik, Hina Bayat Khan, Meesha Shafi, Fizza Ali, Kinza Hashmi and others

This drama promised big things but delivered next to nothing. The promos and the promotional posters that were released on the social media made Mor Mahal look like the next big thing in the Pakistani drama industry but as the viewers tuned to this drama, it turned out to be another story revolving around family politics transpired by bunch of jealous females who were fixated with one man; Asif Jahan, who despite being the ruler had no backbone and also no brains to run things on his own. It was a huge disappointment to see a strong built man following the lead of all the females in his life and not using his own mind and sensibilities enough.

Going by the promos and the overall look, it looked like the team of Mor Mahal were in a mood to give a memorable historic drama to the viewers but as the drama progressed, everything turned out to be OTT, nothing made sense and the story didn’t have any substance. It looked like the producers wasted their resources because even though they tried to make everything larger than life, it just didn’t do anything because the story was weak. Even though this drama had 40+ episodes, the viewers hardly followed half of the drama because it didn’t have enough substance to keep them hooked. It was an opportunity wasted and a project that flopped miserably.

Sanam

Writer: Mona Haseeb
Director: Haseeb Hassan
Producer: Momina Duraid
Channel: Hum TV
Cast: Osman Khalid Butt, Maya Ali, Hareem Farooq, Sharmeen Ali and others.

Sanam was yet another one of the most highly anticipated dramas that left the viewers shocked and disappointed as they had high expectations from it. Sanam was announced when Diyar e Dil ended and since everyone was in love with Wali/Farah, Osman/Maya chemistry, everyone was over the moon because they thought they’d be getting to see the magic again that too with Haseeb Hassan being the director of the new project but little did they know that Sanam would be everything that Diyar e Dil was not!

Before Sanam began, Hareem Farooq went out of the way to let the viewers know that the writer will be raising awareness about mental health and psychological issues that one faces but when the drama began, nothing made sense and the one character the writer should’ve shown as a victim was turned into a villain only to make the bechara hero and bechari heroine come together because it was easier. As the episodes progressed, the story lost the plot and the characters turned out to be such a disappointment because they had no personality whatsoever. The only agenda of the writer was to show how bechara Harib was. Sadly, where the viewers expected a recreation of magical Diyar e Dil, Sanam turned out to be a vol. 2 of Torturous Mann Mayal since Haseeb Hassan didn’t want to come out of that phase of his life where he assumed that Mann Mayal was amazing and anything similar would make the viewers jump with joy!

Seeta Bagri

Writer: Iqbal Hussain
Director: Iqbal Hussain
Producer: Cereal Productions
Channel: Tv One
Cast: Sarwat Gillani, Bushra Ansari, Syed Jibran, Qavi Khan, Shameen Khan and others.

Before Seeta Bagri commenced, it garnered a lot of hype because drama buffs assumed they will get to see the story about the life and the struggles of the Hindu minority community that resides in Pakistan but sadly that didn’t turn out to be the case. Even though the writer tried hard to showcase the reality but it looked like he himself got so inspired by Bollywood that he forgot to make all the Hindu characters purely Pakistani. This drama projected so many stereotypes which showed that the writer couldn’t do justice to what he was trying to show. The characters looked and sounded more Indian than Pakistani which was the biggest flaw.

Poor direction, lack of continuity in the scenarios and sloppy editing also made it hard to tune to this drama. The biggest peeve in this drama was seeing the romance between an aged woman and a young man. Bushra Ansari & Syed Jibran’s acting along with their characters were cringe worthy and the main character, Seeta Bagri was unimpressive as well. This story turned out to be a disappointment because after a few initial episodes, it became obvious that even the director had no idea what he wanted to show. Overall, it was an opportunity wasted and the writer/director had a lot of margin to show something different and bring forth the real issues of a minority which he was unable to convey.