Meet the voices behind Ertugrul's acclaimed characters

With raging success of Turkish series Diriliş: Ertuğrul in Pakistan, the viewers are curious about the voices behind the popular characters of the historic drama that have garnered heaps of praises in a short span of time.

In an interview with BBC Urdu, PTV's Chief Marketing and Strategy Officer said that for the dubbing of the characters of Ertugrul, Halima and others, the state television channel selected a private dubbing agency after a long and detailed process.

"While the dubbing agency was responsible for selecting the artists, the final decision was made by PTV based on the dubbing artists' voices and their ability to voice the characters according to [Ertugrul's] plot.

Also read: 'Dirilis: Ertugrul' Urdu YouTube channel racks up 3 million subscribers

"Ertugrul is voiced by Aitesamul Haq and Halima Sultan by Rabia Kiran Rajput."

At present, dubbing work is ongoing on the fifth season of Ertugrul, the official added.

The official went on to say that the dubbing of Turkish national broadcaster TRT's popular Islamic history drama, Ertugrul, into Urdu was Prime Minister Imran Khan's idea.

"PM Imran wanted Pakistani youth to watch this drama — which reflects the glorious Muslim era of the thirteenth century — so that they could increase their knowledge of Islamic history and values," he added.

Also read: 'Ertugrul' lead star Engin Altan thanks Pakistani fans for watching his drama serial

Asked if he was happy about public reaction to Ertugrul and whether the national broadcaster was working on any more projects with Turkish Radio and Television Corporation (TRT), the PTV official said it was difficult to put into words the tremendous response to Ertugrul — both on the TV and its special YouTube channel 'TRT Ertugrul by PTV'.

"Ertugrul dubbed in Urdu has broken broken the records of the original one. Its first episode was viewed more than 16 million times in the first 15 days of the release, as opposed to the original one in Turkish, which has been viewed 13 million times over the past five years," he said.

"We look forward to working the with TRT in a number of areas in the near future."