Diyar-e-Dil

• Abid Ali as Bakhtiyar Khan/Agha Jan
• Osman Khalid Butt as Wali Suhaib Khan
• Maya Ali as Faarah Wali Khan
• Sanam Saeed as Ruhina Behroze Khan
• Hareem Farooq as Arjumand Suhaib Khan
• Mikaal Zulfiqar as Behroze Bakhtiyar Khan
• Ali Rehman Khan as Suhaib Bakthiyar Khan

• Behroze Sabzwari as Tajamul Arsalan
• Maryam Nafees as Zarminey Suhaib Khan
• Tara Mahmood as Zuhra Tajamul
• Ahmad Zeb as Moeez Tajamul
• Eshita Mehboob as Laila Feroze Khan
• Rasheed Naz as Bedar Khan
• Azra Mansoor as Yasmeen Beddar Khan

Director of series, Haseeb Hassan

Diyar-e-Dil was developed by Hum TV's senior producer Momina Duraid of MD Productions, the channel hired the award-winning director Haseeb Hassan to direct the series.[15] Story of serial is based on award-winning writer Farhat Ishtiaq's novel of the same name Dayar-e-Dil with few variations.[16][17] Screenplay is also written by Ishtiaq while script composing is done by Muhammad Wasi-ul-Din. Farhat has previously worked twice with Momina, when she wrote mega-hit drama serial in Pakistan television history Humsafar[18] and Mata-e-Jaan Hai Tu.[19]

Song composition is done by Shani Haider while background music is given by Bilal Allah Ditta, who chose Zeb Bangash and Momin Durrani[20] for singing. The show approximately airs weekly episode for 35–40 minutes (minus commercials) every Tuesday.[10]

Diyar-e-Dill cast and crew in Skardo at Khaplu Palace.

There were several discussions laid on its time slot, previously it was announced that the show will air on Friday's replacing Sadqay Tumhare,[21] and was also reported that the series will originally start its airing in April or May. However, due to promotional reasons the show was given a time slot of Tuesday, 8:00 pm and the pilot episode was released on 17 March 2015,[10] replacing channel's drama series Zid to Sundays.

The drama serial screenplay is also written by Ishtiaq. She explained that Momina Duraid gave her a full freedom of writing, while writing she discuss the story-line with Duraid and with mutual ideas and aspects Farhat wrote the scripts and made changes in several drafts of screenplay. Farhat said, "I did everything I wanted to and as I wanted to. I had the havelis [hilly] scenes planned out but was a bit scared ke it might be too much, but Momina made it happen and exactly like I had imagined it." Farhat wrote thirty plus episodes which she explained that "it isn't because it was the demand of the channel or producer, it is because that’s how I wrote it. You will see that it will not drag. But to do justice to the story (which revolves around 3 generations), the characters and their feelings, thirty plus episodes had to be written, otherwise bohut kuch reh jata."[22]

In an interview with Hum TV Farhat states that, "Diyar-e-Dil as a novel was not my best thing. It could have been written better which I tried to do in the script. I personally feel Diyar-e-Dils script is far better than the original novel. I'm planning to rewrite Diyar-e-Dil novel with all the additions that I've made for the script. In my opinion Diyar e-Dil script is my best script till date. Diyar e Dil critics can disagree with me." Commenting on characters, she emphasized that they are based on, "Family ties, relationships and love. It was a journey which my characters took to find out whether love is enough for us or do we need blood relations also? Can a person survive without his/her parents, siblings and family? My characters chose different paths and some of them later regret their decisions. How one generation's mistakes bring troubles to the next generation was also a big problem which my characters faced."[23]

The entire story of the series is based on Ishtiaq's novella. While developing screenplay Farhat made several changes, in an interview she said, "There are some differences, but they are very positive. I wrote several drafts of this novel back in 2006. While adapting I took some scenes and situations from my earlier drafts of the novel. Interestingly Momina and I think on the same wavelength. She came up to me once and said Farhat, it would be great if the story had this and this and I said, that is what I had written in the earlier drafts and we just used those. In the novel, there were flashbacks here the story is very linear. Now we have a very strong linear story and I have strengthened the characters even more. I have really enjoyed this script and it was very difficult for me. There are so many characters and each with their feelings that I had to do justice to the feelings of all the characters. I Enjoyed the difficulty as I had also challenged myself."[24] Few characters were added, who only introduced namely in novel. Characters like, Laila, Ibrahim Feroze and parents of Arjumand, Yasmin and Bedar were expanded. Arjumand’s character itself had an less appearance in book while in serial it is one of leading character. Ruhina's miscarriage was also not written in the novel.

Producer Momina Duraid, writer Farhat Ishtiaq and director Haseeb Hassan mutually chose the cast which includes Abid Ali, Sanam Saeed, Maya Ali, Osman Khalid Butt, Mikaal Zulfiqar, Hareem Farooq and Ali Rehman Khan, for the portrayal of leading characters.[6][7][25][8][26]

Abid Ali was selected to play Bakhtiyar Khan.[13] Actress Maya Ali and actor Osman Khalid Butt marked their third appearance together as a couple[27] having previously acted in Aik Nayee Cinderella and Aunn Zara.[28][29] The actors received overwhelming appraisal for their third appearance together as a couple in Diyar-e-Dil. According to Maya Ali, the role of Faarah was the most difficult role she had portrayed.[30]

On 12 October 2014, actress Sanam Saeed joined the ongoing filming thereby confirming her role for Diyar-e-Dil.[26] Saeed was offered the role of Ruhina [26] after the success of her role of Kashaf Murtaza in channel’s series Zindagi Gulzar Hai. [31][32][33] Alongside Saeed, Mikaal Zulfiqar was cast to play the role of Behroze.[34] Both marked their second appearance together as a couple after their TV Series Ek Kasak Reh Gayi. Actors Ali Rehman Khan and Hareem Farooq were cast to portray the roles of Arjumand and Suhaib[35] after their success in shows Rishtay Kuch Adhooray Se and Mausam.[36] It was their first appearance together as a couple. Production also chose Behroze Sabzwari, Tara Mehmood, Azra Mansoor, Rasheed Naz, Ahmed Zeb and Eshita Mehboob for the supporting roles of Tajamul, Zuhra, Yasmeen, Beddar, Moeez and Laila respectively.

Shooting locations From left to right, Khaplu Palace set as the Pivotal shooting location and Shangrila Resort shown as drop back scenes.

Principal photography and filming began in late September 2014 and finishes in early April 2015 [7][37] with approximately 33 episodes.[22] Shooting was extensively done in hilly areas of Pakistan, production house choose Khaplu Palace for pivotal shooting location, in Skardo, Gilgit–Baltistan[37] which was set as a Mansion. Episodes were also shot in Shangrila Resort and Shangrila Lake was shown in drop up scenes.[37] In early March, channel released promos of serial which were heavily praised for their shooting locations and cast. Series’s original sound track (OST) was recorded in January and was released in March 2015. The series was officially set to premier in May with Friday as prime time-slot. Teasers were released in February along with the OST of serial.

All lyrics are written by Sabir Zafar; all music is composed by Shani Haider, Bilal Allah Ditta.

Diyar-e-Dil time-slot poster

Hum TV originally scheduled the series for Fridays slot,[5] but Diyar-e-Dil aired an hourly episode on Tuesdays at 8:00 p.m (Pakistan Standard Time).[38] During Ramadan the show timings were shifted to 9:00 pm. Series has also aired internationally, for North America, New Zealand, Australia and Middle East on Hum TV World. It aired on Hum Europe in UK and Europe,[4] on Hum TV USA in USA[4] and Hum TV Mena on UAE.[4] All International broadcasting aired with same slot and day, In Ramadan, time slots were shifted to 21:00.[4] It was released on Hum TV's sister channel Hum Sitaray on 14 January 2016 airing two episodes (Thursday and Friday) a week.

Diyar-e-Dil's episodes went available on Hum TV's YouTube channel till its syndication. Furthermore In January 2017, it had its digital release on the iflix app, but was taken off the same year. It was made available on Eros Now. The series was digitally released again on August 16, 2020 by Hum TV, the same month, it began streaming under Zee Zindagi on ZEE5.

BARB Asian broadcast reported that drama serial's pilot premiered with 82 thousands viewers on Hum Europe.[40] While according to BizAsia it premiered with a viewership of 67.3 thousands according to Bizasia.[39] 30th episode of Diyar-e-Dil received the highest ratings to date starting with 1.13 million and peaking at 1.47 million viewership.[45] In UK it received 1.19 million viewership.[40] This was followed by episode 32nd with 1.31 million viewers,[46] episode 31st with 92.3 thousand viewers[47] and episode 27th with 89 thousands viewers.[48]

Actor Osman Khalid Butt received immense appraisal for his role of Wali Suhaib Khan.

Actors Abid Ali and Osman Khalid Butt received immense appraisal for their portrayals. Sadaf Haider of the Dawn News praised the series' direction, cinematography, characterisation and production saying, "As with any excellent start the only fear is whether team Diyar-e-Dil can maintain the standards it has now set. This serial is a must watch for any drama fan. Farhat Ishtiaq is a great storyteller but this time she has honed her script-writing skills too and Haseeb Hassan has managed to translate this with seamless ease to our screens."[14] She said that, "In many dramas we are shown protagonists, especially women who adapt with unnatural ease to each change of fortune. Director Haseeb Hassan has done a fabulous job of weaving this inter-generational story together combining beautiful cinematography and a fast paced, well-edited narrative to make a highly entertaining serial thus far."[13] In an issue of Dawn June 25, Sadaf said, "As a story, Diyar-e-Dil covers very traditional grounds: the honour and obedience we owe to our parents and the importance of family. These values are deeply ingrained in our culture, something the writer never questions but reinforces with each turn."[50]

Aruba Adil of Aaj News praises it storyline and consensus that, "Diyar-e-Dil is different from other soap drama serials". She went to state five reasons that makes it different including, location, cast, realistic relationships, subtle love stories and unpredictable ending.[51] After the premier of series first episode it was listed among the top eleven drama serials of 2015 on place four.[44] It has been ranked on many media outlets of top list drama serials of twenty-fifteen.[52] Sheeba Khan of HIP states the serial is, "As great as the script was, the direction was equally fantastic. Haseeb Hassan took the script and visualized it for us with absolute perfection. The cinematography and presentation was beautiful and it was nice to see the beauty of Pakistan, rather than the US or UK."[53] Commenting on the leads of serial she said, " We got to see more of Wali and Faara along with the dining table in the haveli. It was nice to see the lead pair's banter. With all the hatred Wali says he has of Faara, you can see how completely he is in love with her. In their last scene together, you could see how the hurt in his eyes when Faara tells him off, again!".[54] Writing for BrandSynario, Ghazal Sulaiman praises the chemistry between Sanam and Meekal and said, "All praises for Diyar-e-Dil, this drama seems to have all the elements to be HUM TV’s next hit. With an outstanding entry in the season, the drama is pacing fast and is successfully keeping the viewers hooked. Moreover, the drama’s crisp editing and exceptional direction will make you head over heels in love with the natural scenic beauty of Baltistan."[55]

Almas Akhtar of The Express Tribune praised the series story line, setting, location, casting and concept saying, "Diyar-e-dil the only drama portraying the true dynamics of a tribal family in Pakistan" she further added that the series also portray Male bonding thus attracting male viewers .[6] With the popularity of serial, the portrayal of Wali by Osman was declared the best character of the year alongside Kashaf Murtaza by Sanam Saeed in 2012 drama serial Zindagi Gulzar Hai.[56] Buraq Shabbir of The News also lauded the serial and said, "The themes of love, respect, and family values are recurrent through Diyar-e-Dil. The show does a neat job of exploring various emotions and how damaging it can be if one is arrogant and angry and spends time in a negative structure."[57]