Everybody knows that Arnab Goswami’s “The Newshour” is undoubtedly the most-watched news show in Indian television, none more than those who watch Times Now and get reminded of this every 10 minutes. But now, Newshour has earned itself another place in history – pirated DVDs of the high-decibel news entertainment show are outselling Bollywood movies starring superstars like Shah Rukh Khan and Salman Khan on the streets of Pakistan.
“I recently came to know that The Newshour debates on affairs concerning Pakistan are huge hits here. People enjoy watching Zafar Hilaly, General Rashid Qureshi and others battling it out against the almighty Arnab and his team,” a pirated DVD vendor, Ahmed Habibullah told The UnReal Times. “So I just burned a few DVDs with some superhit debates and spread them out among the other Bollywood movies. I was expecting Happy New Year and Kick to continue their amazing sales, but to my pleasant surprise, The Newshour DVDs were sold within an hour,” Ahmed added.
“So I asked my brother Mohammed to mind the store, while I rushed back to my room and burned hundreds of DVDs with all Indo-Pak Newshour debates on The Newshour and came back. They’ve been the top-selling DVDs this week! I’ve not seen this sort of profit before,” a delighted Ahmed continued, “Zafar Hilaly enjoys cult status here. People howl and whistle the moment he begins to speak,” Ahmed said.
“I’ve heard he has thousands of fans in India too, for managing to shout Arnab down, but while he’s the obvious favorite here, a lot of locals rave about Maroof Raza too,” Ahmed continued, “They’re amazed by how articulate he is. While they want to see him lose the argument, they have great respect for the way he speaks. Also, people hate Pirzada here as well. He’s an annoying chap!”
Ahmed added that he is waiting with bated breath for the upcoming Delhi elections, where he foresees his next big sale. “Can’t wait for AAP’s drama, bhai. Inshallah, that’ll beat even The Newshour’s sales. People just went batshit crazy over what Imran Khan did here,” Ahmed signed off.