Pakistan’s TV dramas consistently outperform Indian content globally, but honest industry voices say Pakistani cinema and OTT productions are far from meeting international streaming standards yet.
By Imran Malik | Media & Entertainment Desk | MediaBites.com.pk | Courtesy: Omar Quraishi for lead
A debate sparked by one of Pakistan’s most respected film directors has reignited a conversation the industry needed to have honestly: is Pakistani content good enough for global streaming platforms, or is politics the only barrier?
Director Mehreen Jabbar, whose credits include the acclaimed film Ramchand Pakistani and some of Pakistan’s finest television dramas, recently argued that the absence of Pakistani content from platforms like Netflix and Amazon Prime was primarily political. With both platforms’ regional headquarters based in India, she suggested acquisition decisions were being shaped by geography rather than quality.
She is partially right. And partially not.
Where Pakistan Genuinely Leads
On television drama, Pakistan’s record is exceptional, and the data backs it up. ARY Digital, Geo Entertainment, and Hum TV collectively generate hundreds of millions of YouTube views per episode on their drama catalogs. Individual series of 20 to 30 episodes regularly accumulate several hundred million total views. Each network’s YouTube channel carries tens of millions of subscribers.
Directors like Mehreen Jabbar herself, alongside Nadeem Baig, Kashif Nisar, and Farooq Rind, have produced television drama that not only matches but consistently outperforms Indian television content in depth of writing, acting quality, emotional authenticity, and production values.
The audience exists. The appetite is proven. The content, in the TV drama genre, is genuinely world-class.
Where Pakistan Still Has Work to Do
But the OTT and cinema conversation is different and requires honesty rather than defensiveness.
Can Pakistan currently produce a series comparable to Kohra Season 1 and 2, the Pakistani thriller that became one of the most praised productions in recent regional streaming history? More broadly, does Pakistan have a film or series that genuinely competes with international streaming benchmarks at the level of Breaking Bad, Succession, or even mid-tier global hits?
The honest answer is not yet.
Pakistani cinema continues to produce Eid releases built around familiar formulas, recycled narratives, and production values that would not clear a major streaming platform’s content threshold regardless of which country’s office was making the acquisition decision. The political barrier is real, but it is not the only barrier.
For OTT platforms to invest seriously in Pakistani content, that content must first meet OTT standards. Blaming political bias alone, while legitimate as part of the argument, risks becoming a substitute for the harder work of raising production quality to the level where the political excuse becomes impossible to sustain.
The Path Forward
Pakistan does not need to choose between fighting political bias and raising its own standards. It must do both simultaneously.
The TV drama industry has already proved that Pakistani storytellers, directors, and actors can compete at the highest levels. The next frontier is cinema and original streaming content that carries the same ambition, the same craft, and the same willingness to tell genuinely original stories.
The hill is real. Pakistani content is climbing. But the summit requires more than advocacy. It requires excellence.
