There was a time when award nights in Pakistan were the most awaited events of the year, evenings of glamour, celebration, and cultural pride. Yet, in recent years, the red carpets have grown quieter, the spotlights dimmer, and the applause almost faint. What was once an annual celebration of Pakistan’s thriving entertainment industry has, rather quietly, packed its bags and moved abroad.
In an ironic twist, the few award functions that do take place now often choose international locations, Dubai, Toronto, Istanbul as their stage. These are destinations where local audiences aren’t watching, where coverage is limited, and where even the media that once shaped these moments of cultural recognition are conspicuously absent. The question that begs to be asked: why are we exporting our own celebrations?
Event organizers often cite a lack of sponsorship, security concerns, and logistical limitations as reasons for avoiding Pakistan. Yet, when those same organizers fly entire celebrity entourages to foreign cities chartering flights, booking hotels, and staging elaborate productions abroad, the argument begins to crumble. If there is no money at home, how is there always enough to take the show elsewhere?
The contradiction runs deeper. Within Pakistan, artists frequently lament the lack of opportunities and platforms to celebrate their craft. The industry continues to expand, content is being created faster than ever, yet the spaces to honor that creativity are shrinking. Meanwhile, when awards are hosted abroad, the very audiences and media that nurture these stars, the fans who made them famous are excluded from the experience altogether.
At a recent overseas award ceremony, only about 40 percent of the seats were reportedly filled. The energy was flat, the buzz was missing, and the event trended for all the wrong reasons. Without local press or fanfare, these international spectacles end up feeling hollow expensive exercises in self-congratulation that fail to resonate with the people who actually built the industry being celebrated.
And now, with another upcoming award show also choosing international venue, one can’t help but sense a worrying pattern. Are we prioritizing optics over authenticity? Are these ceremonies meant for validation, or for visibility and whose visibility, exactly?
It’s not about nationalism or nostalgia; it’s about relevance. Pakistan’s entertainment scene deserves to be celebrated on its own soil, with its own people, in its own cities. Our stages, our red carpets, our fans, they are the heartbeat of this industry. Taking that heartbeat abroad might offer a change of scenery, but it risks losing the very pulse that keeps the industry alive.
Until organizers choose to bring these celebrations home again, one has to wonder: are we really honoring our artists, or are we simply hosting a performance of recognition for an audience that’s not even watching?
Text: Sundus Unsar Raja