After Urdu breakthrough in Pakistan, Ertugrul Ghazi will speak Azerbaijani

Following the success of Turkey’s historical drama Resurrection: Ertugrul, more commonly known as the Muslim Game of Thrones, in Pakistan, Azerbaijan has now bought the rights to the globally-acclaimed TV series.

After hitting home screens in Urdu, enthralling viewers with its depiction of Islam, Ertugrul Ghazi, the Muslim Oghuz Turk leader who stole the hearts of millions across the world, will now speak Azeri on state TV.

AZTV said that work has begun for the dubbing of the 150-episode drama, which started airing in 2014 all the way up to 2019; and following the completion the TV show will glue its Azeri audience to their screens five days of the week.

The series depicts 13th century Anatolia and tells the story before the establishment of the Ottoman Empire. It illustrates the struggle of Ertugrul Gazi, father of the empire's first leader.

State-run Pakistan Television (PTV) launched the first episode of the show on April 25, the first day of the holy month of Ramadan. The series was dubbed in the Urdu language at the instructions of Prime Minister Imran Khan, who had expressed interest in the series last year during his tour to Turkey.

"Thanks to PM @ImranKhanPTI for arranging this #ErtugrulUrduPTV #Ertugral gives a source of Motivation & Inspiration to learn & Implement the core Islamic values, it boosts the moral that we can overcome any challenges by our strong will, faith & with help of Allah,” wrote a Twitter user engineer Salman Ahmad Khan.

According to the state-run Pakistan Television (PTV), 133.38 million people watched the drama series from just April 25- May 14. Also, its episodes are trending on YouTube in Pakistan every day.

In just 20 days, since the series with Urdu dubbing started riding on the airwaves, PTV’s YouTube channel has registered exponential rise its viewership with 2.1 million subscribers, shattering all previous records.

Last September, Turkey, Pakistan, and Malaysia had agreed to combat the rising global trend of Islamophobia, mainly in the West. They had decided to launch a television channel dedicated to confronting challenges posed by Islamophobia and to produce films on Muslim heroes.