"Interest in Turkish soap operas started with 'Thousand and One Nights'"

By Sare Selvi Ozturk 

"Turkish TV series' success abroad from Middle East to Balkans, from eastern Europe to lately Latin America first started with a Turkish drama called 'Binbir Gece (Thousand and One Nights)' five years ago, whose plot centers on a story about a single mother who tries to find a way out to be able cure her 5-year-old son and asks her boss for loan who has a crush on her," said Turkish film distributor company Global Agency's CEO Izzet Pinto in an exclusive interview with AA. 

Pinto, who was one of the speakers at media fair DISCOP Istanbul 2014 event, said his company sold the Turkish series 'Thousand and One Nights' to Bulgaria and they had barely persuaded Bulgaria to buy the drama.

"It was a hard process to persuade Bulgaria. Talks continued for a year. I told them 'Please believe me, you will thank me later'. The channel's ratings increased fourfold and its officials thanked me. It gained such great success there that other countries, including Serbia, Croatia and Greece, began to buy it. It created a domino effect. Nearly five years have passed, and we have new countries. Now we are in China and Latin America, which are very important markets. We are exporting the series to 52-53 countries right now," he said. 

 Noting that they aim to enter west European market which is quite hard one to enter because of the low demand there, Pinto said it seems a little bit difficult for now although we are now in Italy and trying to enter Spain and France.

Upon a question which Turkish series has been popular abroad so far, Pinto said it is definitely "Muhtesem Yuzyil (Magnificent Century)" and it attracted lot of audience wherever it is aired and become top-rated TV series. 

Magnificent Century is about the life and times of the 10th Ottoman sultan, Suleiman the Magnificent, also known as Kanuni.

"Although Turkish series are aired late in the evening they become primetime hit in the countries where they are aired. Magnificent Century is aired in 52 countries now and it means some 200 million people over the world watch Turkish series every night. This is very important for Turkey. Thousand and One Nights was aired in 49 countries, "Ask ve Ceza (Love and Punishment)" which is about a love story of a woman from city and a man from southern part of Turkey was aired 45 countries and recently "Calikusu (Love Bird)" which is Turkish series which is based on a novel of Turkish writer Resat Nuri Gultekin and again it is a love story quite attracted many countries' attention and it is now being aired in over 30 countries. I hope it would reach 50 countries very soon."

Saying that selling Turkish series to Latin American countries was not an easy process and it took three years to get to Latin America, Pinto told they finally sold Thousand and One Nights to Chile and it will be aired in two weeks. 

- "Bollywood series less popular than Turkish series"

"Turkish series leave Indian soap operas behind that were once big hit. It is because Bollywood series are aired in daytime. But Turkish soap operas have been given prime time slots. They have value to advertisement companies due to their airing time. That's why Bollywood series are now less popular than Turkish series," Pinto said. 

Talking about the contribution of Turkish series to the economy of Turkey, Pinto said the export of Turkish soap operas worth is over a billion Turkish liras now, they also bring lots of tourists to Turkey and make it one of the most important  tourism destination for many travelers around the world. 

englishnews@aa.com.tr