KARACHI: Veteran Pakistani actor Atiqa Odho, who was on a visit to Riyadh earlier this month, said on Tuesday she was exploring ways for Pakistan’s drama industry to dub more content in Arabic and promote it in Saudi Arabia, calling this a “huge opportunity” for cultural and entertainment exports from the South Asian nation to the Middle East.
In 2019, then information minister Chaudhry Fawad Hussain visited the Saudi capital where he announced Islamabad’s plans to export its television series to the kingdom. Three popular serials, namely Dhoop Kinare, Tanhaiyan and Aahat, were subsequently dubbed in Arabic.
This was the first project in which Pakistan’s state TV dubbed local productions for Saudi viewers, and was part of a push by Pakistan to become involved in Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman’s Vision 2030 reform plan to modernize the kingdom and create new entertainment avenues.
“We need to understand that their vision suits Pakistan and we need to basically get on board and start to encourage partnerships [with Saudi Arabia],” Odho, who is the chairperson of the Actors Collaborative of Pakistan (ACT) and returned from Riyadh last week, told Arab News.
“They [Saudis] are very keen to pick up more content from Pakistan because our content is culturally suitable for their society,” Odho added, saying Pakistani TV channels and networks should be dubbing more of their content in the Arabic language and passing it on to Arabic channels in the kingdom.
Odho lamented that little content from Pakistan was currently being aired on Saudi channels despite “strong, longstanding ties” between the two nations.
“I am trying to figure out narratives that work for both countries, there is a huge opportunity for us,” said the actor, who since her return from Riyadh has been engaging local channels and content creators on unique concepts for productions that could be exported to Saudi Arabia.
While in Riyadh Odho said she met officials from the Saudi entertainment ministry as well as a committee to promote media and entertainment.
“I went there to open up the conversation about Pakistan doing more business on the content creation side with Saudi Arabia,” she said. “We have such a longstanding and in-depth history with each other that this is the time for us to mobilize and motivate people from both sides to do business and create narratives and tell stories together.”
The veteran actor hailed what she called “a historical change” taking place in Saudi Arabia, particularly with regards to the place of women in public life.
“I felt such a fantastic energy about women empowerment in Saudi Arabia right now,” Odho said. “They are really encouraging women into business. They have injected a lot of women into their ministries, into their government departments. You see women all over the place. There is a real energy happening around modernization in Saudi Arabia.”
