Dhoop Ki Deewar Twitter outrage: The Pakistani web series, Dhoop Ki Deewar, where an Indian boy romances a Pakistani girl, is in trouble for its controversial narrative, even before its release on June 25. Social media users in Pakistan said the show attempted to hurt the sentiments of the community and labelled it as “unpatriotic”. They are now calling for a ban on the show.
Here are ten things to know about the controversy:
1. The trailer of the Pakistani web-series Dhoop Ki Deewar was released last week and it has since been embroiled in a dispute over its theme -- a cross-border love story between an Indian boy and a Pakistani girl whose soldier fathers were rivals and martyred in Kashmir.
2. Written by novelist Umera Ahmed and helmed by Haseeb Hasan, the controversial series, which stars Sajal Aly as Sara and Ahad Raza Mir as Vishal in lead roles, carries a special message for the two nations. Though it is being touted as a cross-border romance, the series is about more than that. It promotes Indo-Pak peace. However, many people from Pakistani have started slamming the series with the hashtag #Bandhoopkideewar.
3. According to Twitter users, the series is selling the “blood of Kashmiris” by showing rival soldiers' children falling in love. They also don't appreciate that the show undermines the "Two Nation Theory", which led to the birth of Pakistan, by implying that India and Pakistan are divided by war. Check out the responses here:
4. Several social media users have severely criticised the series, calling it "anti-Pakistani" and terming the actors and makers as traitors.
5. Social media users claimed that the creators of the show in Pakistan are selling their work to Indian platforms while others felt that promoting good relations with our neighbouring country was not acceptable and that the only viable relationship was "revenge for hatred".
6. Others shamed the supposed "anti state and Kashmir narrative" in the show while many called out the actors for becoming part of "5th generation warfare for money".
7. The makers of the web series, meanwhile, said that the show was approved by the Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR), the media and public relations wing of the Pakistani army. Ahmed confirmed that the script is her own creation, one that she started writing as a novel in 2018 and owns the rights to. She said she is thankful to all the supporters who stood by her "principled stance". It is the basic right of a writer to initiate debate on any important matter in their work, she wrote in a statement shared on Facebook. Read more on the controversy here.
8. Addressing all the criticism she received, she also revealed that she was hired by Pakistani firm Group M to make the story into a drama and she started working on it in 2019. The show was then produced by Haseeb Hasan. “All the production of the show was handled by Group M,” she said. “I asked the team for its evaluation so that I would edit out anything objectionable in the story.” Here's all you need to know about the show.
9. The show provides an introspective take on the aftermath of war between two countries and how families who lost their loved ones to war are united in grief beyond borders. Meanwhile, supporting the show, many are forming opinions that it addresses an important subject, especially since India-Pakistan relations have seen strain in recent years, following the Uri attack in 2016, which led The All Indian Cine Workers Association to ban Pakistani artists from working in Bollywood after the 2019 Pulwama terror attack. Read all about the female lead in the series here.
10. The writer of the show also said that it is her right to initiate debate on the matters.
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