KOLKATA, June 6: Building people to people relations on both sides of the border, television artists from India and Pakistan are now collaborating on co-productions for a series of TV serials.
For its new Hindi entertainment channel ‘Zindagi’, which would be launched on June 23, Zee television network has commissioned 6-7 serials where artists of both the neighbouring countries would be working together.
“In some serials the stories and writers are from Pakistan while the artists are Indian. And in others, the story is from India but the artists are from Pakistan,” Shailja Kejriwal, creative head of the project, told here.
In town to promote the new channel which is projected in the premium mass category, she said the co-productions have been commissioned and should go on air by this year-end.
The stories would give the TV audience of India a slice of daily life in Pakistan by dwelling on romance and family drama as the people in the two countries share the same cultural backgrounds, morals and values.
“The lives of people in Pakistan are not confined to violence and terrorism. They also face family, cultural, moral and love related issues like we do. We want to show that to the people in India,” Kejriwal said when asked about the kind of stories which would be told by means of these TV serials.
“Entertainment is the best way to bring people closer to each other and we see this channel as a vehicle to build people to people contact. This also goes with our philosophy of ‘vasudhaiva kutumbakam’ which means the world is our family,” the official said.
Before the co-productions are ready, ‘Zindagi’ will show syndicated content from Pakistan.
“The TV industry is bigger than the film industry in Pakistan and so the serials get the best of talent. Unlike India, the serials are based on famous novels and therefore have a finite ending. It does not go on and on like some of our serials,” she said.
Priyanka Datta, business head of the channel, said they are also in talks for getting syndicated content from all over the world.
“Turkey, Latin America, Egypt and Bangladesh is on our map,” she said. (PTI)
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