The cast, writer and director of drama series ‘Be Panah’ have found much to their surprise that a book catapulted them to fame more than their blood sweat and tears on set. That book was Mein Kampf by Adolf Hitler, which savvy viewers caught in a scene and promptly sent to social media purgatory.

The series is about two young women Gul (Kanwal Khan) and Rishna (Eshel Fayyaz) with completely different natures. Rishna is selfish and greedy, a narcissist and Gul is a sensible person who valorizes her family’s honor and dignity and is full of gratitude.

Rishna was betrothed to her cousin since childhood but she decides to marry a rich man and runs away from home after which Gul marries Rishna’s fiancé. But things don’t stop there, Rishna gets divorced and returns home.

In the 71st episode of this drama, Gul is shown reading the controversial Mein Kampf (My Struggle) with a smile on her face. This is the book that Hitler wrote detailing his journey to becoming an antisemite.

The drama’s writer Nuzhat Suman expressed surprise when we got in touch to ask about this particular choice. “I don’t know anything about it because Gul is a girl who is interested in Urdu language and likes poetry. If so, how did Hitler’s book get into her hands, I don’t know.”

According to Nuzhat Suman, she made it clear in the script that Gul is fond of Urdu literature, so in her room should show books by Parveen Shakir, Saadat Hasan Manto and Ismat Chughtai.

We asked director Kamran Akbar Khan the same question. “Seventy episodes of the drama did not give us as much popularity as Hitler did,” he wryly remarked. It was just an inadvertent thing, a mistake that the book landed on the set as a prop.

Mein Kampf was written in 1925. It is widely available in Pakistan in pirated copies and sells on footpaths and at secondhand bookstores.