Sultana Siddiqui’s office is at the far end of a winding corridor in the Hum Network building. The unassuming glass door opening up to the room belies just how important a space it is.

Here, behind that expansive wooden desk, decisions must be made that have been instrumental in shaping Pakistani entertainment over the years. Some of Pakistani TV’s most exciting drama scripts must have been approved here, and casting decisions must have been made that cemented the careers of some of the country’s biggest stars.

As president of the Hum TV Network, Sultana Aapa — as she is ubiquitously referred to in the industry and even at awards ceremonies and in TV shows — is one of Pakistani entertainment’s most powerful players. She is also an industry pioneer and this room, her office, is testament to her achievements over the years.

A cluster of awards stand in one corner on a shelf and there are multiple certificates and photographs framed on the walls. Right across the work-desk are TV screens, where the many channels that fall under the network’s umbrella are playing out simultaneously.

Director and producer Sultana Siddiqui took ‘early retirement’ from Pakistan Television more than two decades ago. Then she set up the Hum TV network in 2005 and soon became a media mogul. Now, 12 years after she last directed, she is plunging back into producing, not just one but three dramas. What has prompted this sudden burst of energy?

The office is on the first floor and placed right next to the stairs — you can’t miss it — is a standing poster of the drama Mann Jogi. The credits on the poster are illustrious: the drama features actors Bilal Abbas Khan, Sabeena Farooq and Gohar Rasheed. The script has been written by Zafar Mairaj and the drama is directed by Kashif Nisar. It also marks Sultana Siddiqui’s return to the producer’s chair — the raison d’etre for my interview with her today.

A drama with a cause

Our conversation starts off with the drama. As president, she oversees the vast content shown on the network’s various channels — what prompted her to get involved in the nitty-gritties of production?

“I am essentially a director and producer. That’s how I started off my career,” she reminds me. “Over the years I got busy with administration but, now and then, my children nudge life back into me. I remember that I had produced the drama Zindagi Gulzar Hai after a 13-year-break, on my daughter-in-law Momina’s [Duraid] insistence. She keeps telling me that I should direct and produce.”

She continues, “Similarly, this time, I have turned towards production because I am passionate about having certain causes highlighted through dramas. There is so much suffering around us and a lot of it stems from intolerance. People fulfil their own ambitions by inflicting pain on those that are innocent. A person is angry about something else and he or she takes it out by attacking another.

“We see so much of this in the daily news — women, men and children killed on the streets, a mob attacking a woman because she is wearing an Arabic design which actually reads ‘halwah’ and so on. I would discuss this often with people around me and they would respond by saying, ‘Aapa why don’t you do something about this?’. So, I decided to plunge into the fire!”

This time, I have turned towards production because I am passionate about having certain causes highlighted through dramas. There is so much suffering around us and a lot of it stems from intolerance. People fulfil their own ambitions by inflicting pain on those that are innocent. A person is angry about something else and he or she takes it out by attacking another.”

And how is this akin to jumping into fire? Sultana Aapa elaborates: “Our audience is often quick to judge. People see that a topic is controversial and, even before the story unfolds, they form opinions about it. It is my belief that women are able to particularly handle such topics well because they are more sensitive but, at the same time, women are also the first ones to be attacked.

“Men can go off saying whatever they please, but should a woman dare to push boundaries, the reaction is intense and often negative. Still, my team at Hum Network has always tried to tell stories in a way that the message gets across without hurting the audience’s sensibility.”

Her words ring true when one remembers the drama Udaari. The drama highlighted the horrors of child abuse in a thought-provoking narrative. It was a huge hit, triggering a wave of cause-based dramas to launch on TV. Not all of these dramas, however, managed to strike the delicate balance of passing along a message without glorifying the crime or down-sliding towards sermonising. Where Udaari gave out a hard-hitting message, others simply sensationalised.

“It helps that I have like-minded people working with me,” Sultana Aapa tells Icon. “This time, I first decided to produce one drama but, then, I could have only tackled a single cause. Instead, I’ll be producing three dramas, spanning eight episodes each.

“Mann Jogi has been written by Zafar Mairaj and directed by Kashif Nisar. Another drama will be directed by Mehreen Jabbar with the script written by Saji Gul. And the third will be directed by Saife Hassan and written by Mustafa Afridi.

“I can’t do the running around required of a director, but I am very involved as a producer,” she adds, gesturing to the table before her, where a number of scripts are splayed out. Written in pencil along the side-columns, are long notes in Urdu that suggest changes that could be incorporated into the story. On one page that lies open, she has written, ‘This is episode seven. The girl needs to stand up for herself here.’ The script-reading process is evidently a tedious, detailed one.

Mann Jogi, which has just started airing, tackles the topic of halala, where a man divorces his wife and then changes his mind, gets her to marry another man who has to divorce her so that the husband can remarry his wife. Is the practice widely prevalent? I ask her. She nods. “When I did my research, I actually discovered halala centres where this was the norm. It’s that easy for a man to divorce his wife in anger and then contrive to marry her again. People treat it like a joke.

“I know that this topic is a serious one, although I also want it to inspire people with hope. I don’t like sad endings. I want a story to end with the audience feeling that good can eventually succeed against evil. Having said this, this drama does not have the usual tropes of comedy, romance and music. But the story has still been narrated in a mass-friendly way. A niche audience may initially see it, but I want for others to start seeing it also.”

Dramas that tread off the beaten track often don’t manage to generate high ratings — although there are exceptions. Was it a deliberate decision to cast hugely popular actors as main leads? And do actors easily get convinced to sign on to dramas that may not haul in top ratings?

“Yes, certainly,” she says. “But they shouldn’t just be popular, they should also be good artists. Some actors sign on readily, others need to be convinced. When they realise that the drama will be beneficial to their careers, they agree.

“I remember when Udaari was under production, Ahsan Khan was very apprehensive about the role that he was going to play. It was his first negative role ever, and he felt that his career would get ruined. Momina explained to him that she wanted an actor like him to play the role, precisely because he would look good and be pleasant at face value but would actually turn out to be someone so evil! The role ended up taking Ahsan’s career into a new direction.”

She continues, “Actors need to understand that there are some projects that come once in a while, that highlight an important cause, that win them awards and prove their mettle as artists. They need to take them seriously, work hard and stop obsessing over how much they are paid!”

Professionalism, and the lack of it

This steers our interview into an interesting direction. Sultana has worked with different generations of artists over the years. Is the artist community more difficult to work with today as opposed to earlier?

“Yes, and young artists may mind me discussing this, but the ones who are intelligent will understand what I am trying to say.” She recalls a recent experience, “An artist shot one of our dramas for a week and then decided to walk out of the project, leaving the producers to bear the loss and for the co-stars to reshoot the scenes. And this isn’t a top-tier actress that I am talking about, although I won’t name names.

“It wasn’t like this before. When a commitment was made, it would get fulfilled. To date, the senior artists, may it be Jawed Sheikh or Bushra Ansari, arrive on set right on time. Many of the young actors too, such as Mahira Khan and Sanam Saeed, abide by their promises. There are others, though, who will be required to come on set in the morning but they will turn up by afternoon, complaining of a headache or saying that they were up till late at a party!”

She continues, “This unprofessionalism will be the death of our industry. There was a time when there was the concept of an artists’ community or a producers’ guild but, now, there is absolute disunity. An actor will leave your set because a rival channel would have lured them in with more money. Only recently, a staff member left in the middle of a recording, claiming that he was ill. The recording got stalled, the artists were put on hold and we discovered later that he had in fact been shooting with another channel.”

She adds: “The thing is, all these new channels keep coming up and they offer actors huge amounts of money. But these channels have barely any viewership and the actors simply get lost there. On the other hand, when they work with an established platform like Hum TV, their clout increases. Artists, however, don’t realise this. They see channels offering them big sums, designers paying them millions to walk the ramp or wear a single outfit, and they get distracted by their short-term success.”

She has more to say. “Back when I was working with PTV [Pakistan Television], teams would come in from abroad and teach us and one of the first lessons taught to directors was that they had to work within their producers’ budget, without compromising upon their creativity. Now, not just the stars, even the directors have tantrums on set. What can you do?”

So what does she do?

“I could take things to court when a contract gets violated, but how many times will I do that?” says Sultana. “Instead, when an artist gives us trouble, we decide amongst ourselves that we won’t work with him or her again. I also let others know about that artist’s behaviour, so that they are wary too.”

I point out to her that actors also sometimes complain of being victims of producers’ favouritism and late payments. “Yes, I know that actors also face their own problems with unprofessionalism,” she agrees. “If only there was a united body representing the entire industry, these problems would not take place. I am very willing to sit on any forum where the industry can work together against unprofessional behaviour, whether it is by producers, directors or actors.”

There are, of course, an ensemble of artists that one frequently sees on Hum TV — now I know that these are the few good men and women who adhere to professionalism. Sultana smiles.

“There are many who do see eye-to-eye with me. Look at Saife Hassan. He started out as an artist, then he moved on to editing and now he’s my director — and such a fine director! Yasir Nawaz started off as an actor and director for Hum TV and now his brother Danish Nawaz has directed some of our dramas very well. Farooq Rind, Shahzad Kashmiri and Siraj-ul-Haq are both directors who have worked frequently with the Hum TV Network.”

Of course, the main production houses catering to the Hum TV network are from within the family: Moomal Productions and MD Productions, headed by Sultana’s daughters-in-law Moomal Shunaid and Momina Duraid, respectively. Why doesn’t the channel work with other independent producers?

“Other mainstream channels also work only with particular production houses,” she points out to me, “but the reason why I choose to do so is because I can trust these two completely. If I was to work frequently with other producers, I would have to look into every detail. But I trust Moomal and Momina’s choice of script, and I know that they work very ethically and professionally.

“I did start off with independent productions,” she says, “and we continue to do so now and then. I am open to collaborating with producers and artists who could share a percentage of the overall revenue.”

Notwithstanding the unprofessional behaviour of certain young artists, the respect that Sultana Aapa inspires across the industry is undeniable. A recent event at the Karachi Arts Council, celebrating her 50 years in the industry, was attended by a galaxy of stars and industry movers and shakers. One after the other, the guests came on stage and gave speeches, recalling their favourite memories of her, her achievements and her support to them.

Actor and producer Humayun Saeed had spoken of how she had been instrumental in furthering his career. Actress Mahira Khan had talked about how she had set an impressive example as a mother-in-law who supported and furthered the careers of her daughters-in-law. Her son, Hum Network CEO Duraid Qureshi, had spoken about how he had prayed during his university days that he would always live with his mother.

“My children keep me going,” Sultana smiles fondly. “To date, Duraid always turns to me, asking me about this and that. I had been a private producer, with my company Moomal Productions, before Duraid suggested that we should open our own channel. It was with his support that this network was conceived.”

I remind her that, before becoming a private producer all those many years ago, she had taken ‘early retirement’ from PTV. It hardly turned out to be a retirement, considering how her career went full-throttle in later years. Now, though, does she ever consider retiring?

“I will keep working as long as I am healthy and have the strength to come to office every day,” she vouches. “And it is my job that keeps me healthy. That, and my children.”

And since her job and her family are intertwined, Sultana Siddiqui is fortunate enough to enjoy the best of both worlds. Retiring certainly seems out of the question at the moment. Instead, we may see her producing some more.

She is poring once again over a thick script before her when I leave her. It is tedious, detailed work, but she loves it.

Published in Dawn, ICON, August 18th, 2024