There’s been a lot of talk about introducing an in-house digital streaming platform in Pakistan. One individual has really thought it through, deciding they’re going to help Pakistan create its own Over The Top (OTT) platform that will serve to promote this nation’s original streaming content.
Farhan Gauhar, who was part of the Internationally acclaimed digital network, Emax Media, and has been affiliated with the drama and film industry for years now, thought about introducing his own project and that too only in his native language, Urdu. He started his web channel named E-Max from Dubai and has now launched the streaming service in Pakistan with the name of Urduflix.
It might sound like a monotonous question, but how did you get started in the TV industry?
Way back in 2012, we launched our very first web TV service, E max, based in Dubai. TV channels used to cost quite a lot at that time. But even in 2012, the subscribers of E max were 1.7 million locally and about 17 million worldwide. We couldn’t afford to launch a channel. This was Pakistan’s first web TV but we would operate from Dubai.
What is the vision behind Urduflix?
Our vision was to promote Pakistani content and compete in the digital market. Furthermore, we wanted to do something out of the box which could serve contemporary audiences. There already had competitors out there whose content was strong therefore we planned to bring in extraordinary content unlike current widely consumed dramas.
What kind of content did you have envisioned that will now find a place at Urduflix?
Lifafa Dayaan, Auratb Gardi and many other dramas depicting issues that can’t be shown in dramas – human trafficking and illegal abortions. However, through our creative direction, we can touch on these topics.
There are a few rumours in the market that you lack budget which affects the production as well? To what extent is this statement true?
This is half true. Yes, we don’t have as big of a budget as we’d like, but what’s wrong in this statement is when it proclaims that it affects our productions or it insinuates that we don’t have professional people on our team. The directors we hire have an expertise in shooting conventionally structured dramas. To make the jump from that to the kind of avant-garde system that we have is sometimes difficult. The biggest challenge that we had was to differentiate our content from other available dramas. So after analysing, we realised we could hire old school folk along with fresh graduates, the culmination of which could direct our series and make the transition easier. Except for the series that we recently shot with Saba Qamar, we always have new directors who don’t come tethered to the orthodox drama background.
I believe in investing in the content rather than the man power. We do have professional editors, cameramen, and musicians on whom I don’t mind investing. We have only three top most DOPs and along with them we also have new talented people from this field.
What is your strategy of casting actors?
We are actually not following the norms of the industry or the fashions of the market – for instance casting famous on-screen couples. We try to show things from a different angle, we casted Affan Waheen with Sonya Hussain, which was not done before. And on instances where we cast prime actors or actress, such as Saba Qamar, then we need to push things a little from our end too.
How difficult is it to attain the confidence of the actors and staff in the potential success of your content?
Initially, many people would refuse to work with Urduflix considering it was fairly new. But given our success, now when we offer them a series they don’t say no to Urduflix.
With the brand image and content quality.
There are numerous platform from where one can easily and free of cost watch movies or series. Why do you think that people would pay to watch the same content on Urduflix?
We have exclusive content on Urduflix that is not available anywhere else. And I think that is the reason people would pay to watch.
What is your criteria for choosing scripts?
We have top writers on board with us such as Saji Gul, Mohammad Ahmed, and Yonus Butt. Neither do they promote controversial content nor do we. Lifafa Dayaan was written by a talented script writer and we also intend to work with new script writers who have colourful stories to tell.
Are you aiming to come beside Netflix?
To be honest, we cannot compete with Netflix. Pakistan’s revenue market in regard to this is not very high. We wanted to represent Pakistan through Urduflix. Since Urdu is our mother tongue, we aimed to show the significance of our language as other nations do. Usually on other platforms, translated and dubbed series are in Hindi but not in Urdu. At Urduflix, we are aiming to bring in all international content in Urdu which is going to be available on Urduflix only. Even now, we have top Korean, Turkish and Iranian series translated to Urdu.
Had you ever lost hope or faced any major difficulties when you started on this endeavour?
This is the first ever OTT of Pakistan housing original content, where you would not find any conventional dramas or telefilms. Dulhan Ek Raat was our first series, and its star, Alizey Shah, had only worked in the movie Superstar. We didn’t pick any famous celebrities to create hype and it worked well for us. Gradually, we selected various actors, hand selected interesting scripts and produced top-notch content which was needed in the industry.
But I’m grateful for our success. Actors and actresses are willing to work with us, including international ones. What we planned for 5 years, we did it in 5 months.
