Punjabi drama

Punjabi Dramas are semi-improvised comedy stage plays popular in the Punjab region of Pakistan. Punjabi dramas are popular with the lower and middle class and were made famous through distribution on CDs in the mid and late 1990s.

The plays are scripted but actors and performers are given enough freedom to add humour along the way while staying within boundaries. Punjabi dramas are characterised by tuants which are almost entirely of an adult nature, although this is at many times done through word play which implies something else. Later on actors of Faisalabad became famous in the scene and choreographed dances on Punjabi film songs where also introduced which increased the popularity of these stage shows considerably. Sometimes the plays also carry a moral.

Humour

Punjabi dramas are semi-improvisional. A lot of times the actors keep going on several minutes, taunting each other, sometimes even bringing in family members such as sisters and mothers, implying there are sluts or prostitutes. Women in the stage shows are also normally of ill repute and this is made very clear through the taunts they get from male actors. Famous people such as Cricket players, Pakistani and Indian film stars and even celebrities such as Colonel Sanders of KFC are used in humour, sometimes becoming racist on the way. Punjabi dramas are now also finding their way into upper-middle class homes as they become ever more popular.

Tours

Stage shows are mostly concentrated in Lahore, Sialkot, Gujranwala and other Punjab cities and also go on tours abroad to the United Kingdom, where stage shows are distributed through DVDs.