Why Pakistani TV dramas are ‘what Bollywood is to India’, and how they break down barriers

Two Pakistani women sit together on a couch, rehearsing their lines while a director scrutinises them. Waiting off camera for his scene is the male lead.

Also out of sight: the Islamabad homeowners, who are holed up in a separate room and whose furniture and knick-knacks will be seen by millions of viewers – many from the society that has been their country’s neighbour and uneasy sparring partner for much of the past century.

This is the set of the Pakistani drama Aadi Si Bewai, or Half Infidelity – one of what some in other nations would call “soap operas”. These dramas, it turns out, are not just for Pakistanis.

Realistic settings, natural dialogue and almost workaday plots about families and marriages make Pakistani dramas a hit with viewers at home and abroad – especially in the neighbouring country that split with Pakistan in 1947 and is its nuclear arch-rival today: India.

Television, it seems, is succeeding where diplomacy sometimes cannot.

Several thousand people work in Pakistan’s drama industry; the country produces between 80 and 120 shows a year, each one a source of escapism and intrigue. They offer Indians a tantalising glimpse into life across the border – and manage to break through decades of enmity between the two governments.