'Netflix quality' is lame, says Urwa Hocane: Pakistani dramas don't need the comparison
On Gloss Etc, the Udaari and Mushk star said Pakistani stories don't need Netflix as a yardstick, pointing to Aap Ki Izzat's success.
Urwa Hocane has a problem with one phrase you hear a lot in Pakistani showbiz: “Netflix quality”.
What she said
Speaking to Maliha Rehman on the show Gloss Etc, the actor and producer said the industry needs to stop measuring local dramas and films against Netflix. As quoted by The Express Tribune:
- “When someone says a project is ‘Netflix quality’, I find it so lame.”
- Netflix, she argued, is “just an app or a portal” that “worked for a couple of years”, not the final word on quality.
- “We are not all about the glamour,” she said. What makes Pakistani work special is the storytelling. “I think the simple thing is our stories.”
- Commercial polish, she said, should come after the story: “Later, we commercialise it and make it beautiful.”
Dawn Images reports she also said, “We’re doing better than that,” and pointed to Aap Ki Izzat as proof that a Pakistani drama can pull huge audiences without big-budget glamour. Her own performance in that drama has been widely praised by fellow celebrities.
Why this comes up so often
Whenever a Pakistani drama or web series looks slick, reviewers and fans call it “Netflix level”. Urwa’s point is that this sells local talent short, as if quality only counts when it looks like a foreign streaming show. Daily Times sums up her view: a project is not automatically better just because a streaming service releases it, and stories with real emotion matter more than the platform.
Not everyone agrees
Readers under the Express Tribune article were split. Some agreed that Pakistani dramas have their own identity. Others said repetitive storylines, saas-bahu fights and endless episodes are exactly why viewers want something closer to Netflix standards.
Who is Urwa Hocane?
Urwa started as a VJ before moving into acting. Her best-known work includes Udaari, Mushk, Rangreza, Punjab Nahi Jaungi and Na Maloom Afraad, and she produced the 2022 film Tich Button.
So, are you team “our stories are enough” or team “we still need Netflix-level production”? It’s a fair debate.
Sources
This story was researched and drafted with AI assistance, then checked and edited by our editor before publishing.
