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🇵🇰 Pakistan /Culture & Society

Bushra Ansari wants Pakistani TV to tell more issue-based stories

From The Express Tribune · () English

Summarized by DistantNews. Read the original for the full story.

At a glance

Interview Named sources Context piece
  • Veteran Pakistani actor Bushra Ansari has called for television dramas to examine the root causes of social problems rather than repeat familiar domestic conflicts.
  • Ansari said she wanted issue-based stories that address poverty, abuse, education, unsafe roads and dysfunctional institutions while giving audiences material to question and learn from.
  • Reflecting on her career since joining Pakistan Television in 1968, she contrasted earlier realistic, literature-influenced programming with what she sees as formulaic storytelling today.

Bushra Ansari says Pakistani television should stop circling the same domestic conflicts and start asking harder questions about the problems ordinary people face. For the veteran actor, singer and writer, showing poverty, domestic abuse, weak education, unsafe roads or dysfunctional institutions is not enough. A drama should also explore why those problems exist.

I haven’t been writing for four years.

· Bushra Ansari, Pakistani actor, singer and writerAnsari explained that she had stopped writing because much of the television being produced no longer interested her.

“I haven’t been writing for four years,” Ansari said in an interview, explaining that much of the material being produced no longer interests her. Her preference remains issue-based storytelling. “There should be root causes,” she said, arguing that television should look beneath social problems instead of merely presenting them as background or plot devices.

Ansari recalled an earlier television culture shaped by literature, theatre, music, cinema and everyday life. “We didn’t have the idea of a heroine in our heads,” she said. “We wanted good characters.” She remembered watching films such as Gone with the Wind, reading Wuthering Heights and following Indian cinema. That wider cultural exposure, she said, helped produce realistic work for television.

There should be root causes.

· Bushra Ansari, Pakistani actor, singer and writerShe said dramas should examine why social problems exist, not simply depict poverty, abuse or failing institutions.

She cited Alif Noon as an example of a production that remained memorable decades later. In her view, television could entertain while also prompting audiences to observe, question and learn. “It’s a sad thing to say we don’t have that now,” she said. She also recalled a period when producers were willing to experiment, from comic costumes and props to dramas dealing with age, relationships and other subjects that could still provoke discussion.

We didn’t have the idea of a heroine in our heads. We wanted good characters.

· Bushra Ansari, Pakistani actor, singer and writerAnsari contrasted earlier character-focused television with what she sees as more formulaic storytelling today.

Ansari joined PTV in 1968 as a singer and later moved into acting after initially facing her father’s hesitation. She said her husband, a director, supported her decision to continue working after marriage. Looking back on the industry she entered as a teenager, her message remained direct: entertainment should engage with real life and return to lessons that matter.

It’s a sad thing to say we don’t have that now.

· Bushra Ansari, Pakistani actor, singer and writerShe expressed regret that television no longer consistently combines entertainment with realism, reflection and learning.
About this summary

Originally published by The Express Tribune. Summarized and contextualized automatically by DistantNews, with a note on how the source frames the story. Not individually reviewed before publishing. How this works.

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