A Love Affair with Turkish Drama

Can Okan, Inter Medya’s founder and CEO, talks to TV Drama about how the continued popularity of Turkish dramas has helped establish Turkey as a global powerhouse in the content-export industry.

For the past ten years, the popularity of Turkish dramas has continued to boom, establishing Turkey as a global powerhouse in the content-export industry. And Inter Medya has been one of the pioneers of its success. “Our country is second to the U.S. in terms of TV-series exports,” says Can Okan, Inter Medya’s founder and CEO. “It’s a huge share of revenue for our country. Turkey has unique historic and cultural richness rooted deeply. Our culture appeals to all cultures across the globe. In parallel, Turkish titles distinguish themselves with their production quality, star-studded casts and rousing storylines.”

While the themes of Turkish dramas are varied, impossible love, historical figures and family conflicts often take center stage. “Lately, there is a huge interest in dramedies, police and mafia stories,” Okan says. “It depends on the territory or platform that we work with.”

The company’s catalog includes The Ambassador’s Daughter, which is among this season’s most popular series. Starring Engin Akyürek and Neslihan Atagül, the show has been licensed in over 50 territories so far. Another successful drama is Ramo. Inspired by a real person, Ramo spotlights the deep conflicts of family and love. The Light of Hope, meanwhile, is a daily drama starring Elizabeth Damla Güvenilir, the child actress from the acclaimed hit Elif. Bitter Lands has already been licensed in over 55 territories. “The series continues to break records both locally and internationally,” says Okan.

“All of our dramas carry a strong Turkish-drama DNA,” he adds, “with stories that can appeal to audiences everywhere. Family tragedies and revenge, triangles of love and obstacles that seem impossible merge in these stories, making them extremely desirable in the international market.”

Inter Medya has also been building out its movie slate, Okan notes. “The Turkish feature-film industry started to attract great attention from all over the world recently. At Inter Medya, our aim is to always expand and diversify our catalog; so, in parallel to our TV-series library, we strive to expand our feature-films library as well.”

From the Inter Medya slate, Miracle in Cell No. 7 has recently attracted attention from international viewers. The movie tells the heartbreaking story of Memo, who lives with his beloved little daughter and grandmother in an Aegean town. “The movie was watched by 5.2 million moviegoers in Turkey and became the most-watched movie of the year,” Okan says.

The Way We Are, another feature film from the Inter Medya catalog, tells the story of a group of friends who reunite with each other years later. Past issues arise, as do unexpected events. “It’s a heartwarming mix between drama and comedy,” says Okan.

There’s also Ali, which tells the story of a family who live in a small Anatolian town. It unveils the difficult times a young man experiences due to gastric cancer.

With the proliferation of online streaming platforms in Turkey, the popularity of miniseries has been on the rise. “This year, we have expanded our miniseries catalog with new and international hits,” Okan says. One of these is Interrupted, a romantic drama about a young and idealist journalist named Ozan, who loses his life in an unfortunate car crash, and his girlfriend, Elif, who will go after the people who took Ozan’s life.