RAWALPINDI: When filmmaker Nadir Shahzad and musician Syed Misbah Uddin started talking to each other in the style of TV dramas and recorded it for fun, little did they know that it would become Pakistan's first drama parody on IGTV.
IGTV is Instagram’s long format video posting feature that allows users to upload videos of up to 60 minutes and has become a popular medium for brands, influencers and TV networks.
With its first episode screened on IGTV on March 2, Shahzad and Uddin's "Pyar Aur Sach" ("Love and Truth") has already amassed over 8,000 views.
“We kind of found it funny, one of those things that friends do together, we didn't really expect other people to laugh at it as well,” Shahzad told Arab News in a Zoom call on Saturday. “But now we're doing this and it's enjoyable just genuinely to do it.”
“We took out the phone and started recording that episode laughing insanely hard," Uddin said. "Once it was up and other people started laughing Nadir was pumped to make more.”
Actor Mariam Saleem soon joined them, and the trio has since produced six episodes.
The series is shot on a cell phone with the style of shooting lending another layer of humor to the show.
Pyaar Aur Sach follows the story of Nadir played by Shahzad, Misbah played by Misbah, and Mariam who is sometimes Sakina and sometimes Shaista. They play the same characters Pakistani viewers know from their popular TV dramas: helpless male leads and vindictive wives entangled in exaggerated marriage-focused plotlines.
"In one episode you can clearly see my feet and socks in the frame of a shot, but I didn’t care," Saleem laughed. "It’s working in the way that we are not too serious about it."
The trio is unsure how many episodes their drama will have. But viewers in their comments are hoping for more, as they appreciate the humor and the evident joy that the creators are having while shooting the series.
"We will continue to make episodes," Shahzad said, "As long as we are friends, and we don't get bored with the concept."
