Shaijla Kejriwal, who is bringing Pakistani drama serials to Indian television audiences, felt “very jealous” but glad when Aman Ki Asha was launched as it was something she “had wanted to do for a long time”
The woman behind the idea of Zindagi, the Indian television channel being launched on June 24 that will introduce Pakistani drama serials on to India hopes the move will be positive and help promote peace, and says there was no governmental or bureaucratic opposition to the idea.
Shaijla Kejriwal is the Chief Creative Head of Special Projects at Zee Entertainment Enterprises Limited (Zeel) for Zindagi, was talking to Rakhi Chakraborty in a detailed interview ahead of the June 24 launch of Zindagi.
Zindagi will give Indians a taste of Pakistan’s culture through “the magnificent spectacle that is Pakistani television,” writes Chakraborty. Presenting a different view of Pakistan, it will be “not just entertainment” but “history in the making” (Yourstory.com, June 14, 2014).
While the legacy of conflict between India and Pakistan complicates matters, says Kejriwal, she hopes to change this mindset by exposing Indians to general Pakistani entertainment.
Her main reason behind launching Zindagi, “was very personal … nothing to do with the business aspect”. She wants to counter the trend in India towards “becoming more and more polarised and intolerant” as well as the “propaganda driven news about the other country, news which the powers want us to hear about each other”.
“It is so strange that countries which were one up to a few decades ago are so driven apart now. Indians have no idea at all about what is going on in Karachi or Lahore apart from what is considered conventionally newsworthy” like violence and bomb attacks.
Having studied comparative literature at Jadavpur University, Kejriwal fell in love with Pakistani culture while reading Urdu literature, alongside Hindi and Bangla.
“After reading the beautiful words of Pakistani masters, one has to wonder why there is so much fear! I remember the first time I went to Karachi I was so afraid. This fear has been drilled into our collective psyche. We have been brainwashed into thinking that it is an enemy state in perpetual terror. And that is not the truth at all.
“We talk about how we love their music and their singers — Rahat, Nusrat, the works. We talk about how we love their clothes. But that happens at a slightly more elite level. I thought that why don’t we start something that is mass based. When Aman Ki Asha started, I remember feeling very jealous. That I something that I had wanted to do for a long time, but was glad that it had been launched.”
Such initiatives, she comments, generally fizzle out after a couple of years. Similarly, films like the just released Filmistan, says Kejriwal — “Na Hindustan na Pakistan, what unites us is Filmistan” — bring a short spurt of positivity.
Zindagi, on the other hand, brings ongoing sustained, relatable programming. This will be very important for India, “a historic step in fostering people to people contact (and)… much-needed empathy” between the two countries.
Its opening serial starts with a scene showing a girl sitting on a bed. Her sister comes in and they launch into good-hearted bickering. “This conversation could be happening anywhere in India. When audiences realise how similar we all are, we will become more tolerant”.
Mainstream national Hindi soaps, she says, focus “around a very specific religion, caste and even region”. India prides itself on being secular but she finds there is either little representation, or misrepresentation, of Muslims in popular culture and in the mass media.
“This hatred that exists in certain people is only a few years old. I also feel that, in India, there is innate curiosity about Pakistan,” she says.
“There is such chemistry between the two nations. You can love each other, you can hate each other but you cannot ignore each other. And that is the most beautiful relationship you can have. We love their cricketers, whether you are talking about Wasim Akram or Imran Khan. Today when Shafqat Amanat Ali’s songs play in every city and town in India, people don’t pause and say that he is a Pakistani. People are more tolerant than the media would have you believe. It is time to tap into that goodness.”
Being in people’s homes 24/7, Zee Zindagi, she believes, will help change mindsets. Just as Bollywood films and stars are so popular in Pakistan, “once India witnesses the sheer genius of Pakistani television, we too will come to embrace it as our own.”
“My colleague’s wife declared, ‘Main toh Pakistani serial dekhungi hi nahi’ (I will never watch Pakistani serials). My colleague told her that I can bet on it, once you start watching, you won’t be able to stop because the stories themselves are so amazing’.”
“I am not saying because they are such brilliant stories of such brilliant people. They are regular stories about ordinary people. There is such honesty in that storytelling that it is endearing. Especially given the current standard of television in India… Because of commercialisation, we have become creatively corrupt. Therefore when this channel launches, it is going to make a lot of people think. The social and religious tolerance is just one way of looking at it.”
She hopes that the Pakistani serials’ stellar quality of storytelling on mainstream television will push Indian television’s creative professionals to re-examine themselves. “Everything is not about Paisa pheko tamasha dekho (throw the money, watch the show). There has to be a soul in the story that you are selling. Indian television is currently devoid of that soul. It’s all about loud random and crass nonsense. Loud trash like this numbs the mind, makes us close our thoughts, makes us vulnerable to all kinds of cheap propaganda and ultimately creates a less tolerant society.”
Since Pakistan does not have much of a movie industry, all their thought and creativity goes into making “beautiful television”. Pakistani TV series are shorter, with fewer episodes, focused on telling a story. Indian serials “just narrate random incidents one after the other.”
Kejriwal believes that Indians have matured enough as a nation to not generate needless controversy once the channel goes live. Not that Zindagi will be showing anything controversial. The Pakistani content itself is focused on the daily life, struggles and philosophies of ordinary people, which is what it aims to showcase.
Kejriwal ventured to get Zee to back this vision due to her belief that “All of us, deep within our hearts, want to do something good and want to be remembered for doing something good”.
Zee’s tagline “Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam” (the world is my family), created in 2012, gave her a cue. It could have been “Entertainment Ka Badshah or Zee: The No 1 Entertainment channel of India.
This tagline, she feels, “had to have come from a special place. That thought is what I needed to build upon. If your tagline is that the world is my family, then let’s start with our neighbours. ‘Vasudhaiva Kutumbakam’ or ‘Good fences make good neighbours’.”
— AKA
