Calinos Entertainment’s Ismail Dursunov

As Calinos Entertainment celebrates its 20th birthday, Ismail Dursunov, the company’s deputy general manager, reflects on the success of Turkish dramas and looks ahead to new co-production opportunities.

Calinos Entertainment was one of the early pioneers of exporting Turkish drama series in the international marketplace. The company was founded in 1997, originally operating out of Los Angeles before relocating its headquarters to Istanbul to strengthen its ties with countries in the region.

TV DRAMA: Calinos Entertainment is celebrating 20 years. How have you seen the business evolve in that time?
DURSUNOV: As everyone in our sector knows, Calinos has been a pioneer in exporting Turkish TV series and has contributed to the phenomenal success we are seeing today. Within this period of time, most producers started making content marketable and ***Image***suitable for viewers abroad, which naturally increased the quality of these productions. Consequently, Turkish dramas became even more popular than local ones.

TV DRAMA: What is guiding Calinos’s drama strategy at present?
DURSUNOV: There is no need for us to develop new practices to promote Turkish content since it has become well-known everywhere around the world. Our strategy as a company is to sell our new and old titles from our library to new territories. Thus, we are working on a new work structure abroad.

TV DRAMA: Are co-productions becoming more of a focus for Calinos?
DURSUNOV: We are planning to develop new projects within the 2018 season with producers both in Turkey and abroad. Notably, we are currently working with one of our Latin American partners on a surprise project based on a true story. We are open to making partnerships with all production houses and channels, and we have seen everyone as a partner during the past 20 years.

TV DRAMA: What are some of the new drama titles that Calinos is launching?
DURSUNOV: This season we will be launching our new very strong products Our Story and Woman, made by the producers of Feriha and Mother. Hazal Kaya is starring in Our Story and is the same actress who played in Feriha. Burak Deniz will be her partner in this production. Our Story is about Filiz (Kaya), who has been struggling to survive in one of the poorest neighborhoods in Istanbul. She is the typical big sister, who has become the mother of the family. She has to look after her five younger siblings and her useless alcoholic father, Fikri. Filiz thinks that there is no place for love in her life up until the day she meets Baris. Each will find themselves at a crossroads as their life takes them on a new roller coaster every day.

Woman is the story of Bahar (Özge Özpirinçci), a young woman living alone with her two children. Bahar, who was abandoned by her mother when she was 8 years old, later suffers again deeply when she loses her grandparents. Just when she thinks she is all alone in the world, she meets Sarp (Caner Cindoruk), who she falls madly in love with. They lead a happy and blissful life, full of beautiful moments and memories that would be cherished forever. One day, Sarp unexpectedly dies and Bahar is once again alone, now spending her days struggling for survival but nonetheless full of determination to raise her children well, holding on to the happy memories of her beloved husband. This is up until the sudden appearance of her mother and extremely eclectic sisters, opening a door to unexpected events.

We believe that these two new titles will see big demand this year both locally and abroad.

TV DRAMA: In which countries are you seeing the greatest demand for Turkish dramas currently?
DURSUNOV: Each year, a new region becomes interested in Turkish TV series. For instance, a few years ago Turkish content was in high demand in the MENA region but recently there has been a decline because of political uncertainties and economic trends. There is a serious interest in Latin America for Turkish content. Two years ago, we sold the first Turkish series to the Indian market; the demand has been steady but my prediction is that it will pick up in the next couple of years. I think that we will be able to sell to some new surprise regions in the near future.

TV DRAMA: The Turkish drama landscape is quite competitive! What makes Calinos stand out?
DURSUNOV: We have always liked to be pioneers in what we do. As competition rises, there will be a need for new ideas and strategies. We plan to develop and carry these new strategies into the next stage.