MADD Entertainment announced during Natpe Budapest, strong sales across CEE, CIS and Africa for its summer slate, including international bestsellers The Family, Wild Heart, My Wonderful Life, Dirty Laundry and the red-hot Blooming Lady and Remember.
MADD boasts the best slate in the business, with most of Türkiye’s top-rated series. “It has been a very successful season for us in Turkiye,” said CIS & Asia & Africa Senior Sales Manager Salmi Gambarova. “It is extremely rewarding to see our local success translate to international success!”
One of the top series of the year is The Family, featuring Türkiye’s most famous stars Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ (Crash, Brave & Beautiful, Forbidden Love) and Serenay Sarıkaya (Phi, Medcezir) in a romantic drama where love, crime, and therapy meet. The Ay Yapim drama has been a strong seller in CEE & CIS, with deals already set in Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Latvia, Lithuania and Moldova.
Another popular drama is Wild Heart, which tells the remarkable story of Ali, who was kidnapped as a boy but eventually finds his way to his wealthy birth family. Broadcast as Yabani in Turkiye, this NOW series has already found a home in Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Macedonia and Serbia, as well as Africa. The series features many stars, including Halit Özgür Sarı (For My Family), Dolunay Soysert (One More Chance, Wings of Love), Simay Barlas (Ömer), Bertan Asllani (All About Marriage), Yurdaer Okur (Family Secrets), and Osman Alkaş (Heart of the City).
My Wonderful Life is the hit series from Ay Yapim known in Türkiye as Şahane Hayatım. The series stars Hilal Altınbilek (Bitterlands, Black Rose) as Şebnem—an anti-heroine born from adversity—who claws her way to the top of society’s ladder with a dash of plastic surgery and unwavering ambition along with Onur Tuna (Hidden Truth, A Miracle) as a mysterious homicide captain and her wealthy husband named Onur, played by Yiğit Özşener (Ezel). My Wonderful Life has seen wonderful sales, including Hungary, Macedonia, as well as Africa.
Another Top 10 hit is Dirty Laundry, a moving portrait of the cleaners, caregivers and household help who work behind the scenes to make a wealthy lifestyle possible. This Medyapim series, which airs in Türkiye as Kirli Sepeti, tells the story of one such group of resilient women whose lives are spent cleaning up the messes left by others. It has already found a home in Kazakhstan and Romania. Dirty Laundry features an all-star ensemble including Ayça Bingöl (As Time Goes By), Ceren Moray (The Teacheri That’s My Life), Devrim Yakut (Chrysalis, Brave & Beautiful), Melisa Döngel (Love Reason Get Even, Love is in the Air), Serkay Tütüncü (The Perfect Tenant) as well as newcomers Cansu Tosun (Lost City) and Halil İbrahim Ceylan (Legacy).
The most-watched drama in Türkiye today is Blooming Lady, the 2024 series that rocketed to #1 on Turkiye’s Show TV, where it airs as Bahar. This heartwarming drama focuses on a stay-at-home mom who goes back to complete the medical residency she gave up 20 years ago to start a family. Now she is a first-year doctor at the same hospital where her husband is Chief Surgeon, but life is hardly a bed of roses for this eager intern. International viewers seem to love Blooming Lady as much as Türkiye’s, and deals have already been concluded in Macedonia, Kazakhstan, Romania and Serbia. The series feature an all-star ensemble including Demet Evgar (Flames of Fate), Mehmet Yılmaz Ak (Family Secrets), Buğra Gülsoy (My Little Girl, Fatmagul) and Hatice Aslan (Farah, Phoenix, Kuzgun).
One recently-concluded deal is for Remember, the Medyapim series about a young man from a poor neighborhood with the unique ability to remember every detail from every moment of his life. His unique condition becomes an asset in his quest to clear his father’s name and take revenge on the men who framed him. The series will soon air in Macedonia, its first CEE sale. The series features many stars, including Ekin Koç (The Bad Penny, The Great Seljuks, Magnificent Century), Ozan Güven (The Choice, Phi, Magnificent Century), Bülent Seyran (Fatmagul), Hüseyin Avni Danyal (Family Secrets), Hande Ataizi (Chrysalis), Serra Arıtürk (The Club, Recipe of Love) and Burak Yörük (Love, Reason, Get Even, Nehir).
While NATPE Budapest offers the opportunity to celebrate MADD’s success in CEE, Spring has been a good season for Africa as well, with deals announced for My Wonderful Life and Wild Heart.
Senior Sales Manager for MENA & CEE Alaa Elabasy said, “It has been a pleasure to continue our strong relationships with our partners this season and continue to cater to the needs of broadcasters and audiences across the world.”
