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Bulbulay Turns 17: Ayesha Omar and Nabeel Zafar Celebrate Pakistan’s Longest-Running Sitcom

Pakistan’s most loved family sitcom has turned seventeen. Bulbulay, the ARY Digital comedy that has been making the country laugh since 2009, completed 17 years on television this week — and its stars marked the milestone with a warm Bulbulay 17 years celebration that delighted fans across generations.

Lead actors Ayesha Omar and Nabeel Zafar shared celebratory posts on Instagram, posing together with fellow cast members Hina Dilpazeer, Mehmood Aslam and Shagufta Ejaz. The actors cut a cake, shared old clips from the show’s golden moments and thanked the millions of viewers who have kept the sitcom alive for nearly two decades.

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How the Bulbulay Family Celebrated 17 Years

The Bulbulay 17 years celebration was a family affair in every sense. Ayesha Omar, who plays the beloved Khoobsurat, and Nabeel Zafar, the show’s lead and producer, posted pictures with the full cast — including Hina Dilpazeer, whose Momo remains one of the most iconic comic characters in Pakistani television history, Mehmood Aslam (Mehmood Sahab) and Shagufta Ejaz.

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Ayesha Omar, who plays Khoobsurat in Bulbulay, at a 2024 event
Ayesha Omar, who has played Khoobsurat since Bulbulay began in 2009. Photo: The Citizens Foundation, CC BY 3.0.

“17 years of laughter, legends, and unforgettable moments. Long live Bulbulay,” the cast wrote in one of the celebratory posts, while another message read: “Today we are celebrating 17 years of putting up with and loving each other, and being on your TV screens. And the love keeps growing. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts for all the love you continue to give our Bulbulay family.”

Fans flooded the comments with memories of their favourite episodes, from Momo’s legendary misunderstandings to the family’s endless money-making schemes that always backfired. The actors also shared throwback clips — including scenes from the wedding episode in which Hina Dilpazeer first appeared as Momo before becoming a permanent, scene-stealing part of the show.

From 26 Episodes to a 17-Year Institution

What makes the Bulbulay 17 years milestone truly remarkable is how modestly it all began. The sitcom was originally planned for just 26 episodes — a single short season of family comedy. Seventeen years later, it holds the record as the longest-running television series in Pakistan, with well over 700 episodes across its two seasons.

Ayesha Omar in 2011; Bulbulay began airing on ARY Digital in 2009
Ayesha Omar at a 2011 press event; she has played Khoobsurat in Bulbulay since its first season. Photo: fasioncentral.pk / Flickr, CC BY-SA 2.0.

Bulbulay first aired on 22 October 2009 on ARY Digital. Directed by Rana Rizwan and written by Ali Imran and Saba Hassan, the show follows an unconventional Pakistani family — Nabeel, his wife Khoobsurat, their friend Mehmood Sahab and the unforgettable Momo — as they bumble through money troubles, wild schemes and everyday chaos. Its family-friendly humour, slapstick mix-ups and habit of breaking the fourth wall turned it into a staple of living rooms across the country, and the reason the Bulbulay 17 years celebration resonated so widely.

Nabeel Zafar, who also produces the show, has often said the sitcom cemented the cast’s identities on television. For Hina Dilpazeer, the character of Momo became bigger than the actress herself — “many people recognise us by our characters and not by our real names,” she once remarked, calling it proof of how deeply the show has entered popular culture.

What Is Next for Bulbulay

The best news for fans: the laughter is not stopping. Ayesha Omar confirmed during the celebrations that filming is set to continue for another six months, which means more fresh episodes of Bulbulay are on the way — extending the Bulbulay 17 years success story well into next year.

Season 2 of the sitcom currently airs weekly on ARY Digital, and the cast’s chemistry — built over 17 years of working together — shows no sign of fading. For a show that began as a 26-episode experiment, reaching the Bulbulay 17 years landmark is a rare achievement in Pakistani television, where few programmes survive even a fraction of that run.

Seventeen years, hundreds of episodes and countless catchphrases later, Bulbulay remains what it always was: the country’s favourite family comedy — and the Bulbulay 17 years milestone proves some shows never grow old. As the cast put it — long live Bulbulay.

Sources: Grace Production House blog; Wikipedia – Bulbulay. For more on the shows Pakistan is watching, see our guide to the top Pakistani dramas of 2026.

UrduPro Showbiz Desk
Written by UrduPro Showbiz Desk
The UrduPro Showbiz Desk covers entertainment and celebrities. Stories are researched from public sources and reviewed by our editorial team before publication. To send a correction or a tip, please use the Contact page.
UrduPro Showbiz Desk
UrduPro Showbiz Desk
UrduPro Correspondent

The UrduPro Showbiz Desk covers entertainment and celebrities. Stories are researched from public sources and reviewed by our editorial team before publication. To send a correction or a tip, please use the Contact page.

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