PTV's 44th Anniversary

Entertainment Showbiz Pakistan , Bollywood & World Entertainment
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PTV is celebrating it’s 44th Anniversary. PTV is the most senior TV in Pakistan. It starts in 26 Nov 1964 in Lahore and in Dec 1964 in Dhaka. Then in 1967 in Rawalpindi and Karachi and may be in some cities of East Pakistan also. PTV has a great history. Long Live PTV!

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ALL THE NAMES YOU ARE TO READ IN THIS SUBMISSION.. .COME FROM MY MEMORY OF YESTER (42) YEARS AT THE PTV. IF I MISS OUT ANY NAME..PLEASE REVERT WITH CONVICTION.- ----- Regards, Raju Jamil (PTV Debut-2nd December, 1967 from Karachi Centre in Amir Imam's play "Jahan Baraff Girti Hai" with Neelofer Alim, Agha Sajjad and Mehmood Ali)
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**Pakistan Television Corporation. ..has come a long way since it first started its transmission in Pakistan on 27 November-1964 from Lahore! It has become an icon of the television monitor itself. Be it any channel....PTV will always have itself in one's mind.

Here's something interesting and worth a read;
**
1.FIRST ON PTV;
Announcer (Male) : Tariq Aziz
Announcer (Female) : Kunwal Naseer.
Newscaster: Tariq Aziz
Newscaster (Female): Yasmin Wasti
Cameramen: Nisar Mirza and Anees Ahmed.
Make Up Artiste: Kamaluddin Ahmed.
Film Editor: A. K. Mussarrat
News Editor: Zafar Samdani
Program Director: Aslam Azhar
General Manager (Lahore) : Agha Bashir
General Manager (Dhaka) : Kaleemullah Fehmi
General Manager (Karachi) : Z. A. Bukhari
General Manager (Quetta) : Shahzad Khalil
General Manager (Peshawar) : Jamil Afridi
First Qari : Qari Ali Hussain Siddiqui.
LAHORE CENTRE (27 Nov-1964):
Producers (hereinto referred as Director...currentl y);
***Muhammad Nisar Hussain a.k.a MNH
Kunwar Aftab Ahmed,
Agha Nasir,
Fazal kamal,
Akhtar Vaqar Azim,
Azam Khurshid,
Ghufran Imtiazi,
Nusrat Thakurr,
Bakhtiar Ahmed,
Khowaja Najmul Hasan,
Munazza Hashmi,
Rashid Dar,
Farrukh Bashir,
Yawar hayat,
Ayub khawar,
M. Salim Tahir,
M. Azim,
Mushtaq Chaudhry,
Shaukat Zainul Abedin,
Qambar Ali Shah,
Khawar Sial,
Hafeez Tahir,
Tahir Naqvi.
Sikandar Shaheen,
Ghazanfar Ali ( he initiated the famous mega-serial WARIS at Lahore..which was, after 5 episodes, handed over to Nusrat Thakurr when Ghazanfar was sent to Karachi Centre. He owns INDUS VISION currently)

Writers/Dramatists:
Ashfaq Ahmed,
Bano Qudsia (Mrs. Ashfaq Ahmed),
Kamal Ahmed Rizvi,
Anwar Sajjad,
Amjad Islam Amjad,
Asghar Nadeem Syed,
Riaz Batalvi,
Athar Shah Khan,
Shoaib Hashmi,
Ahmed Nadeem Qasmi,
Munno Bhai,
Yunus Javed,
Jamil Malik

Artiste/Actors;
Muhammad Qavi Khan,
Munawwar Taufeeq,
Abid Ali,
Firdaus Jamal,
Khayyam Sarhadi,
Aurangzeb Leghari,
Asif Raza Mir,
Usman Pirzada (he was in big time.. much before before Samina),
Samina Pirzada,
Mehnaz Rafi,
Tahira Naqvi,
Munawwar Saeed,
Naveen Tajik,
Shujaat Hashmi,
Shamim Hilaly,
Ayub Khan,
Jamil Fakhri,
Saleem Nasir,
Hasnat Ahmed,
Irfan Khoosat,
Asim Bokhari,
Syed Afzaal Ahmed (Chitta),
Mustansir Hussain Tarrar,
Uzma Gillani,
Aslam Azhar,
Nayyar kamal,
Rabia Tabassum,
Sikandar Shaheen,
Najma Mehboob,
Nisar Qadri,
Naeem Tahir,
Yasmine Tahir,
Kunwal Naseer,
Rafi Khawar (Nanna)
Kamal Ahmed Rizvi,
Madiha Gauhar,
Shahnawaz,
Khalid Abbas Dar,
Nighat Butt,
Ali Ejaz,
Jamil Bismil,
Badiuzzaman,
(Unforgettable! !) ROOHI BANO.

KARACHI CENTRE (27 Nov-1967):
Producers;
Mohsin Ali,
Qasim Jalali,
Zaheer Khan,
Shirin Khan (later Shirin Azim w/o Athar Vaqar Azim),
Tajdar Adil,
Nazimuddin,
Ishrat Ansari,
Amir Imam,
Zaman Ali Khan,
Riaz Farshori,
Nighat Amin,
Agha Nasir,
Kunwar Aftab Ahmed,
Arif Rana,
Aftab Azeem,
Shoaib Mansoor,
Shahzad Khalil,
Zaheer Bhatti,
Tashbihul Hasan Syed,
Abdul Karim Baluch,
Sultana Siddqui.
***Writers/Dramatists;
Fatima Surraiya (Bajya),
Asghar Butt,
Shaukat Siddiqui,
Ghulam Abbas,
A. Hameed,
Hameed Kashmiri,
Kamal Ahmed Rizvi,
Sultana Fakhar,
Asad M. Khan,
Naheed Sultana Akhtar,
Zakia Akbar,
Shahid Kazmi.

Artiste/Actors:
Talat Hussain,
Zeenat Yasmine,
Ishrat Hashmi,
Zaheen Tahira,
S.M.Saleem,
Muhammad Yusuf,
Iqbal Lateef,
Iqbal Tareen,
Zafar Masud,
Ghazala Rafiq,
Khurshid Talat,
Santosh Russell,
Shakil,
Mehmood Ali,
Qazi Wajid,
Raju Jamil,
Salim Nasir,
Jamshed Ansari,
Shakil Chughtai,
Anwar Beg,
Arshe Muneer,
Behroze Subzwari,
Zaher Khan,
Zahoor Ahmed,
Neelofer (Aleem) Abbasi,
Khalid Nizami,
Shahnaz Ghani,
Mehmood Khan Moodi,
Afzaal Chitta,
Javed Sheikh,
Shaista Qaiser,
Mohsin Shirazee,
Zooni Butt,
Saqib Sheikh,***

***RAWALPINDI-ISLAMABA D CENTRE (27 Nov-1968):
Producers;
Jamshed Farshori,
Shakir Aziz,
Qaiser Farooq,
Anila Shaheen,
Munazza Hashmi,
Tariq Mairaj,
Azam khurshid,
Akhtar Vaqar Azim,
Aftab Asrar,
Farkhunda Shaheen,
Nazeer Amer,
Qaiser Naqi Imam,
A. Salam Khan.

Artiste/Actors:
Sarwat Atiqullah Sheikh,
Dr. S. A. Rehman,
Majeed Abid,
Badar Khalil (Baddo),
Sahira (Ansari) Kazmi,
Rahat Kazmi,
Sajjad Kishwar (on records to have delivered a dialogue of 20 minutes wihout any camera cut in a live play)
Khalid hafeez,
Mumtaz Mufti's daughter (can't remember her name at the moment),
Aksi Mufti,
Huma Nawab,
Ayaz Naik,
Nayyar Kamal,
Agha Waheedur rahman,
Sehr jalal,
Agha Masood,

***QUETTA CENTRE (27 Nov-1969):
Producers;
Sajjad Ahmed,
Dost M. Katkori,
Zeb shahid,
Maazullah,
Dur Muhammad Kasi,
Attaullah Marri,
Aijaz Ahmed Niazi.
Artiste/Actors:
Abdul Rauf khalid,
Jamal Shah,
Ayub Khosa,
Tahir Naqvi,
Mona Junejo,
Tahir Lahiri,
Huma Akbar (CARAVAN fame. Zeba Bakhtiar's sis in law)
Leyla Zuberi,
Saira Khan.

***PESHAWAR CENTE (27 Nov-1970):
Producers;
Ateeq Siddiqui,
Jehanzeb Suhail,
Karim khan,
Masood Shah,
Zawwar Din Afridi,
Tariq Saeed.

Artiste/Actors:
Majabeen Qizilbash,
Firdaus Jamal (though his debut technically. .is from Lahore)***

**SOME FAMOUS (FIRST) ANNOUNCERS, COMPERES, ANCHORS AND NEWS READERS OF PAKISTAN TELEVISION;
*Tariq Aziz, Rahat Saeed, Ghazala Yasmine, Khushbakht (Aliya) Shujaat, Naeem Bukhari, Dildar Pervez Bhatti, Iftikhar Arif, Laeeq Ahmed, Zia Moheyuddin, Obaidullah Baig (actual name HABIBULLAH), Qureshpur, Rukhsana Ameer, Azhar Lodhi, Khalid Hameed, Ma'para (Zaidi) Safdar, Ishrat fatima, Shaista Zaid, R. Hemrani, Shahzadi Sadiq, Anjum saleem, Kunwal Naseer, Samina Abbas, Yasmin Khalid, Mehtab (Channa) Akbar Rashdi, Rana Syed....the list goes on........ .

FIRST EVER "ENGLISH" PLAY TELECAST ON PTV;
……was from Karachi Centre!
I requested the then GM-Karachi, Burhanuddin Hasan....and the famous GBS's play ARMS & THE MEN...was recorded at Adamjee Auditorium Hall live...sometime in Sept-1972... .
Directed by Mrs. Rahila Masood of Karachi Grammar School.

For PTV, it was produced by Ishrat Ansari.

Cast;
Yasmine Ismail as RAINA,

(My cousin) Shehryar Azhar played SERGIUS, He currently anchor's ARY's talk shows from New York...having retired from CitiBank at New York in 2004 as SVP.

Ismat (BooBoo) Haider played 2nd fiddle to Raina.

A Britishmen ( I forget his name) based in Karachi those days..played Captain Bluntschelli' s role.

Beg (I forget his first name?) played Major Petkoff.

Naimat Jaffery and myself did a small but very interesting role of loyal SERB Soldiers
( we did have quite a few dialogues... !!! and it was my first ever English stage play).

*THOSE WERE THE DAYS........ .......!! !!! *

My friends!

(Raju Jamil)
PTV-Karachi
1967-2008
41 YEARS!!!

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Re: PTV's 44th Anniversary

Thanks uncle Please add in actress
Talat Siddiqi
Rehana Siddiqi and
Arifa Siddiqi

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[quote="Ali_Usman"]

Thanks uncle Please add in actress
Talat Siddiqi
Rehana Siddiqi and
Arifa Siddiqi/quote]

Ali...they are not the FIRST ones...on PTV.

Indeed....Talat and Rehana are the FIRST ones on RADIO PAKISTAN....
**but their entry to PTV was in fact quite..or relatively late. **

Talat did but one or two or maybe even less plays on PTV...but she was ever popular in RPk...and in movies!

ARIFA is a kiddo...as far as PTV's TOP TEN are concerned!

I am talking of 1964-Lahore....1967-Karachi and so forth on!

I have known Talat and Rehana pretty well. Rehana is currently in London visiting her daughter!

Khush Rahein...

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Re: PTV's 44th Anniversary

nice sharing arjay..well done.....

haapy bday PTV

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Thanks....much appreciated...in fact a respite! from the......onslaught!!:):)

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Re: PTV's 44th Anniversary

East or West PTV and Uncle Raju are the best.

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:)ha:)ha:)ha....Usman, kiyon apne thread ke peechay parray ho....
we have record holders who have had several threads closed!

Khush Rahein....aur jo bhi info. chaheeay...elawa gossip jaisi bakwas ke...
please pour it on!

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Re: PTV's 44th Anniversary

Great Dramas on PTV includes

Waris
Unkahi
Alif Noon
Ek Mohabat Sau Afsani
Sona Chandi
Tanhaiyan
Andhera Ujala
Fifty Fifty
Dhoop Kinary
Shama
Kaliyaan ( Uncle Sargam )
Teesara Kinara
Choti se Duniya

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Privileged to have been the cast member of....

1. 1982-83,
2. 1968 (revised version in color from lahore)
3. 1972 (Lahore)
4. 1981 (Karachi..in three chunks during vacations visit from Bahrain)

Great time...and what memories.....!!!

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Re: PTV's 44th Anniversary

PTV's old dramas are classic and so much fun to watch even today after decades. Anyone inspiring to be in drama-making business should watch and learn from the old classics. They depicted true emotions, wonderful storylines, talented actors/actresses to watch, and clean entertainment that people used to sit with their entire families at night to watch them..... very much unlike today where forget the skimpy clothes, lack of acting skills and closeness/romance shown.. the storylines themselves are so vulgar that it makes the viewers squirm.
Sadly, PTV has lost it's charm now but whatever, the memories of great entertainment it has given it's viewers are long lived.

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Re: PTV's 44th Anniversary

^ totally agree. its a treat to watch the classics even now. as i mentioned in this forum before, PTV should get their classic serials re-released in digital recording (better picture n sound) to celebrate and give homage to the great era of PTV, with maybe never before seen clips or bloopers. Arjay Uncle maybe you should pass on the idea to someone in PTV...worth a try right? PTV will make a lot of money off it too, as is dramas are being recorded and sold by pvt comapnies and their recording sometimes is not very professional quality.

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^ I blv they've done it for fifty-fifty

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Re: PTV's 44th Anniversary

I agree with shay9164. PTV 's drama serials, talk shows music programs are top of the line. PTV dramas should be used as textbooks for acting, screen writing, direction etc etc.
But sadly PTV has lost its glory by following "bher chaal". The private channels are even worse. They have no morals or sense of responsibility.

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Re: PTV's 44th Anniversary

^The less said about the private channels, the better.. each is headed the star plus way!

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Re: PTV's 44th Anniversary

Some folks complain that people should stop talking about old dramas as nobody wants to watch them anymore. I think it's a false and misguiding statement.

Firstly it needs to be clarified that our tv channels are not making dramas anymore.what we watch today are soaps. Drama is something else. It's about reality and it has the ability to excite and thrill which arises from conflicts closer to reality.

Secondly, these 'soaps' are technically lacking. Some of the flaws that I've noticed :

  1. There's no effort spent on characterization. All characters look and behave in the same manner.

  2. The sets look unrealistic and lack detail. For example, if a village doesn't look like a village , if the actors don't behave like villagers , doesn't matter how much money you spend , it won't convince the viewers. Another example is how in most of the soaps the houses look like a film sets.The rooms are garishly decorated irrespective of the setting of the scene. In older dramas, the house used to be a 'character' in the story. Don't people still the remember the house, the office , the lounge rooms in ankahi and tanhaiyaan ?

  3. The directors lack the technical skills and the creative mind that could bring out the depth in their story.Also, they don't have any novelty in their story telling. The director should learn about acting, music, cinematography, editing, etc .Otherwise, he won't be able to do justice to his job. Sahira Kazmi, shaoib mansoor are excellent in directing actors only because they know the art well.

4.The writers create stories far from the reality of our life. Their characters are sketchy and cliched. The screenplay lacks the power to thrill and excite which is again a technical skill which these writers haven't learned.The dialogues are trite and lack humor and wit. There's a basic rule of writing dialogues that characters act like normal people but they talk like wise people. so smart dialogues are a crucial part.Only people with keen observation of life and depth of knowledge can come up with intelligent dialogues and unique characters. Haseena Moin and Amjad islam Amjad 's dramas serve good examples.

5.There 's no effort made to highlight social issues with the objective of making positive change in society. These producers need to understand that we're not interested in watching umrao jan ada or jhumka jaans anymore.

  1. Soaps are produced to earn quick bucks. A lot of them are focused on sensationalism and glamor. Common topics include courtesans and extra marital affairs.The producers always defend them by saying 'this is happening in our society'.
    It has always been happening in our society and even in the past they were portrayed in our dramas but they weren't shown as role models and they weren't glorified like they're being now. Tv is a powerful medium, use it for bringing a positive change.

  2. The music should be used to enhance the emotions and the drama but it should never be used to foretell whats going to happen(thats what they do in indian soaps). Most of the newbie directors have not been able to learn how to use background music in an effective manner. Dhoop kinaray is a good example of what an important role music can play in accentuating romance.

  3. There's a dearth of writers who are able to write comedies. the best humor is closer to life. But it seems most of these writers don't know whats happening around them hence they copy jokes from indian/hollywood films.

  4. Today, there are no writers who can come up with social satires like Aangan Tehra.

  5. Most of the newbie actors have this misconception that acting is all about 'acting' which is a totally wrong approach. They need to be trained about different aspects of performance like how to deliver dialogues, how to create characters, and how not to act. most of them just put on make-up and think their job is done. no wonder all the character look alike.

  6. There's no attention to detail which plays a crucial part in' painting the whole picture'.This is the responsibility of the director and it depends on how well the he knows the story. I feel most of the directors today have a superficial understanding of what they are actually telling.

  7. The use of light is all wrong. In PTV dramas, the scenes were lit close to natural light with shadows et all. But in these soaps the whole scene is lit up like like a wedding hall.looks unnatural.

  8. Drama should be shot according to its subject matter. but these newbie directors try to do fancy stuff which doesn't do justice to the story and its theme.

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Re: PTV's 44th Anniversary

i cant stand current PTV and really any of the private channels.
when i had heard about all the new stations starying in pakistan, I had wondered out allowed mayeb even on GS about what will they fill the programming with because in general the lineup on PTV itself was getting to be really bad in the 90s.

I was wrong, they did not have an issue with material, but sadly most of it is crap, utter crap.
I mean are they following Borat as an example for some reason.

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Ptv is a disaster.. turn it on anytime and it's only boring "khawateen" shows..that are sooo old! When that's over they put on "Kisaan time" and how to clean the carbo of u're truck! I've seen ONE documentary for fertilizers for the past 7 years!

I recently stumbled upon a drama called "madham madham" on ARY that I actually liked..otherwise Fahim Burney is another Ekta Kapoor in the making..

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IT IS after a very very very long time---that I have seen some real material/discussion and thoughts on a thread without smileys and wisecracks and the element of being the smart one!

I commend each of the submissions above.

Now WHY ...."PTV" is bereft or has become bereft...comparatively to what it was (in our days) is a very good question..for which..and perhaps for the first ever time in the history of paklinks/gushshup I will be placing here the voice message thoughts of giants of the PTV like (but essentially after the permission of admin and thread author?);

  1. ASLAM AZHAR,
  2. AGHA NASIR,
  3. AKHTAR VAQAR AZIM,
  4. IFTIKHAR ARIF,
  5. ATHER VAQAR AZIM,
  6. SULTANA SIDDIQUI and
  7. TALAT HUSSAIN.

So...wish me luck..that I start the series in next few days and end during or after EID ALADHA that i am proceeding to Dubai, Europe and Canada for shoots by 15 Dec.

My thoughts based on my 41 years association with PTV and WHY it went bereft...comes by Monday-1 Dec...Insha'Allah.

Khush Rahein.

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Re: PTV's 44th Anniversary

well, the kissan time days are over pals. i've been a ptv viewer for a long time, and when it comes to comparing dramas, i think ptv is far better than other channels. but yes it lags behind in magazine shows and entertainment programs. kawateen time was loads better than the " rise and shine" ( usual morning show just like other channels).