Yawar Hayat Khan

Yawar Hayat Khan (born 1943), is a senior former producer and director of the Pakistan Television Corporation (PTV) and one of the early founders and creative entities of this channel from 1964-65 onwards, when its serialized dramas were immensely popular in Pakistan.

Origins

Yawar Hayat Khan was born in Lahore, in October 1943 the eldest son of Brigadier Azmat Hayat Khan and grandson of Sir Sikandar Hayat Khan, the Punjabi aristocrat and statesman.^{[citation needed]} From his mother's side he was the nephew of Anwar Kamal Pasha, a famed early film director of Pakistan and a grandson of the famous Urdu poet and writer, Hakim Ahmad Shuja. He was initially educated at the Aitchison College, and then went on for his Bachelor of Arts degree to the Forman Christian College.^{[citation needed]}

Television career

In November 1964, the Pakistan Television Corporation made its first test-transmission from Lahore, and in that same year Khan was selected as a trainee with the fledgling state TV channel. In 1965, when PTV launched its Islamabad / Rawalpindi station, he was one of the first creative assistant producers deputed to it. In 1967, he was transferred back to Lahore, and it is at the Lahore TV studios that he then served for the rest of his career and produced his best work.^{[citation needed]}

Khan retired from active television service 2005, after around 40 years. He occasionally teaches at the Pakistan Television Academy now.^{[citation needed]}

Creative Work

Khan's first major dramatic success came when as a young producer-director, he directed the immensely popular rural folk drama Jhok Siyaal (1973), based on a work written earlier by Syed Shabbir Hussain Shah, the Punjabi writer (husband of the classical singer Malika Pukhraj and father of Ghazal singer Tahira Syed), which achieved something of cult status. This was followed by Waris (1978–79) and then a host of hit serials such as Samandar, Nasheman, Dehleez, Sahil, Lazawaal and others, between the 1980s and 1990s.^{[citation needed]}

The influence of the world-renowned British film director Sir David Lean is often visible on Khan's work. His art has also been compared with that of the American novelist, William Faulkner, who reflected many similar themes in his own social contexts, with a strong sense of 'local' attachment to the 'Old South'.^{[citation needed]}By 1999-2000, the popularity of his work visibly lessened amongst the younger generation of Pakistani television-watchers who are more attuned to a 'globalized' access to world media.