Pakistani TV Dramas depict various aspects of Pakistani life and culture. This, of course, includes the depiction of particular cultures and ‘people’ of Pakistan. As a Punjabi (well mixed, but whatever) I look forward to seeing how the Film and TV industry depicts Punjabi culture and people.

More often than not, I’m left disappointed. 

Punjabis are shown in one particular light in a majority of our shows. These projections create particular stereotypes about Punjabis and Punjabi culture.

There are some cliches that are pretty rampant and gaining popularity day by day.

The first stereotype that comes to mind is that Punjabis are unnecessarily loud

One thing that I can say is that Punjabis generally have a bubbly personality and speaking loudly is sometimes part of it. Rather than presenting it as SUCH a horrible negative, why can’t we accept it and celebrate it.

Punjabis are super dumb

Excuse me? Really? Dramas show Punjabis are being real airheads. They can apparently only talk about the most basic of things, for example, food and clothes. They can easily be fooled and slightly intellectual topics just fly over their heads. I don’t even know how to respond to that, honestly.

Punjabi fashion sense is pretty horrible 

If dramas and movies were anything to go by, Punjabis don’t have a fashion sense at all, they just wear really bright colors that go together and wear conflicting prints. Sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

In fact, they have no taste at all.

Again, according to the entertainment industry, Punjabis have zero aesthetic sense and taste. They’ll buy anything they like and fill their houses with the most random of things.

In recent times, characters like Saima Chaudhry represents all the stereotypes that are imposed on Punjabis. Of course, that was a comedy setting and her characterization was exaggerated, however, it fed into the existing stereotypes. Even in the movie ‘Punjab Nahin Jaongi’, the depiction of a ‘typical’ household was blown out of proportion. Chaudhry culture has honestly just looked upon as a joke.

It propagates the idea that a certain people are just comical. 

Yes, they are some things that are unique to a certain province/people, however, they need to be celebrated rather than made into something that is made fun of.

This isn’t just restricted to Punjabis. The Sindhi stereotype is built largely on the assumption that everyone is a Saein and extremely trigger happy. Sindhis can apparently only be defined by the wadera culture, and can only be surrounded by weapons. And anyway, it’s not like we’ve seen a lot of Sindhi characters in the first place, which is an issue in its own right.

Not too long ago, acclaimed screenwriter, Anwar Maqsood, came under fire for jokes about the Sindhi community. It is true that this type of humor was acceptable in the past, however as times change, so should the scripts and programs we indulge in.

How do you feel about this stereotyping? Let us know what you think in the comments section?