Ramadan 2021: 30 Days Of Drama Discoveries

CAIRO - 18 May 2021: As Ramadan came to an end, we have put together things we discovered from the drama that was on offer this year, and we hope sincerely that people within the industry take note and learn from our observation to give the audience a more progressive batch of drama series’ next year.

1 Take A Break;

Mona Zaki has demonstrated this year that being present in every Ramadan season is not a positive thing and as the saying goes ‘absence makes the heart grow fonder’ the audience need to miss the actress/actor and its also an opportunity to find the right script and storyline, not a rushed one that is put together in a hurry to meet the Ramadan deadline. As much as we are big fans of Nelly Karim, Yousra, Mohamed Ramadan, Dina El Sherbiny, Zeina, Riham Hagag, Ahmed El Saka and Amir Karara but they all need to take a break next Ramadan. And the same applies to the writer Amr Yassin and director Mohamed Sami who both were a let down this season. 

2 Quality Not Quantity

More than 25 drama series were produced this year yet it has to be said that this has been one of the least memorable drama season, par two or three series. This has been an on going feature for the past few years; an overload of series’ yet few are of good quality. We need to return to the glory of the past when at most there used to be ten series and all of high quality and big named stars, we need better writers, better scripts, new storylines with multi dimensional characters and if something not done about this issue soon then we can’t blame the audience for opting to watch foreign series.

3 Change and Mix

It is understandable that if you enjoy your workplace and you like your co-workers then you never want to leave but change is often a sign of progression and yes it may carry a risk but the rewards will be far greater. Actors/actresses need to work with various directors, writers, performers and producers and not limit themselves by opting for the safe option, just because you were a hit with the working group once this will be repeated, a prime example is Nelly Kareem’s insistence on working year after year with the Adel Group.

4 Being The Sole Star No Longer Works

One of the more positive features of this Ramadan season is sharing the series between two big named stars who did not feel threatened in sharing the limelight, while it did not work in the favour of Amir Karara and Ahmed El Saka but that was not their fault, the failure came from the plot and script. But if we look at the combination of Mostafa Shaaban and Amr Saad in The Kings of Chivalry (Molook El Gada’na) or Karim Abdel Aziz and Ahmed Makki in The Choice (Al Ekhteyar) or the Lebanese Maguy Bou Ghosn and Danielle Rahme in Til Death (Lil Moot) or even Rania Youssef and Yasmine Raies again in The Kings of Chivalry (Molook El Gada’na), they have all proven that stars don’t need to feel threatened if they are confident in their talents and ability, on the contrary they make the series far richer and more popular. 

5 A Happy Cast Increases The Series Success 

Sadly this year’s series were marred by internal fighting and actors walking out on unfinished scenes and maybe that is one of the many reasons that this drama season was a big flop. Zeina’s series All In The Name of Love (Kolo Bil Hob) had great potential on paper and many were waiting for her alongside Ahmed El Saadny but the fights that erupted at the latter’s disappointment with the production company for allowing Zeina complete control over the commercial posters of the series, where her name appears more than four times, this made Saadny pull out followed by Mustafa Darwish who also left the series before completing his scenes. These internal battles was reflected on screen and that’s why very few actually watched the series. Riham Hagag was another controversial figure whose issues with Ayetn Amer made her series fail in a major way, Amer did not pull out though she wanted to do so but she did not promote the series or her role at all on her social media channels, nor did Rania Youssef who was part of the series yet chose to only promote her role in The Kings of Chivalry (Molook El Gada’na) on social media, which is a clear sign that she was not happy with it. Even the series that did better (Ili Maloosh Keber) was not of a similar standard to last year’s cooperation between Yasmine Abdel Aziz and Amr Yassin and that was puzzling until it emerged that both had a personal difference which resulted in them deciding not to work together anymore. Even the much awaited Saka and Karara combination turned into a big flop and it is now being revealed that many were not happy within the cast and crew. The series that were successful were the ones that seemed to have a happy team or ones that didn’t reveal details of any internal strifes.