Pakistan News: Army boosting its image.

Pakistan's Army Is Ready for Its 

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Trying to boost its image, the military is funding a popular TV show starring soldiers; acting skills 

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CRS Public Relations

REAL SOLDIERS, low budgets: A shot from 'Beyond the Call of Duty.'

Pakistan's powerful army is involved in domestic politics, foreign affairs and defending the nation's soil from attack. Now it can add a new stripe to its uniform: television production house.

The military is funding a TV action series aimed at showcasing its role in fighting Taliban militants. To keep costs down, the army employs soldiers as actors, with no extra pay for their services, and uses real military equipment. The army says the stories are based on real-life encounters on the battlefield.

The series, "Faseel-e-Jaan Se Aagay," or "Beyond the Call of Duty," is low-budget. The soldiers' acting is wooden. Each episode costs only $12,000, and the special effects look dated. Yet the Urdu-language series, which started in January and began a second season earlier this month on state-owned Pakistan Television Corp., has been a hit, especially among rural viewers.

In the recent season opener, two helicopter pilots who stormed a Taliban mountain redoubt in 2009 played themselves. In the show, as in real life, the pilots had lost a colleague during an operation earlier that year to clear militants from South Waziristan, a mountainous tribal region near the Afghan border. Against orders, they flew a retaliatory mission against the Taliban and captured an anti-aircraft gun that militants had used to shoot down their friend's helicopter. They are reprimanded but become heroes nevertheless.

The pilots are portrayed as sensitive family men and cool sunglass-wearing aviators. When they are about to fire their weapons, they break into English, saying things like "Going in. Going hot," and "The miscreants are engaged." The battle scenes are set to Western rock music.

"I am a soldier by my heart and mind. I only agreed [to] acting to pay homage to my fellow aviators and soldiers," said Maj. Zahid Bari, one of the two pilots.

The director, Kashif Nisar, said he finds it easier to teach soldiers to act than actors to look like soldiers. Officers only need to be guided on acting skills, while professional actors need to be taught "action tactics, carrying of uniform, carrying of weapons, mannerisms and body language of a soldier," he said.

Mr. Nisar said Maj. Bari and his army colleagues prepared by watching professional actors on the set. Maj. Khalid Maooz, the other pilot, did well in scenes where he was soldiering but had to do a number of takes for a scene involving a double-date with a colleague and two girls, played by actors. "All of them got a little nervous while performing the romantic scenes," Mr. Nisar said.

One aim of the series is to put a human face on the army, which has suffered intense criticism since the secret U.S. raid in May on a Pakistani garrison town that led to the death of Osama bin Laden. Some in the army hope that the series will turn the focus back to the sacrifices soldiers are making in the war against the Taliban.

"Naturally, these are tough times. This could help," says Brig. Syed Azmat Ali, an officer who helped to develop the television show. "We're bringing the real happenings of the war front to people's homes. People will realize how difficult it is for soldiers to fight there and work there."

U.S. officials say that Pakistan is not doing enough to fight Taliban militants who attack American soldiers across the border in Afghanistan. Some believe Pakistani officers harbor Islamist beliefs and may have been complicit in sheltering bin Laden. Pakistan's army says that it is doing all it can with limited resources and denies that bin Laden received safe haven.

Many Pakistanis have opposed the war, questioning why the military is battling fellow Muslims. The show has changed at least one viewer's mind. "Most people, including me, initially thought Pakistan was fighting a U.S. war," said 26-year-old Yasir Ali, who saw the show for the first time this month. "But when I watched the drama, I came to the conclusion that those guys are a cancer for the whole country and should be cut out."

A later episode will portray the life of a woman from the Swat Valley, who sets up a militia to push the militants out of her village. Ayesha Sana, a well-known Pakistani actress who plays her, said she normally portrays bored housewives in family dramas set in big mansions in Islamabad, the modern capital. "It's a turn in my career, doing this kind of meaningful role," she said.

Pakistan's military has directly ruled the nation for half of its 64-year history and today, despite a civilian government, remains the dominant political and economic power broker.

The army came up with the plots for the new series and hired a production company to write scripts and film the episodes. It had full control over the process, vetoing anything that it didn't like.

Analysts say that the new show is part of the army's long-running campaign to justify its powerful position in Pakistan society. "It's basically to create some kind of goodwill for the military," says Hasan-Askari Rizvi, a defense analyst based in Lahore. "It's a good time to show the military is also doing something positive."

—Rehmat Mehsud contributed to this article===============================================http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304319804576389500987371470.html?mod=googlenews_wsj