Booming Turkish TV drama industry captures hearts, boosts tourism
ISTANBUL
Under the sweltering Turkish sun, tourists wander through sets that recreate Ottoman and Byzantine-era castles, take selfies with actors in traditional Ottoman costumes and watch horseback stunt performances. Among them is Riia Toivanen, 22, a devoted fan of Turkish television drama who traveled to Istanbul from Finland with her mother to delve into the realm of her beloved shows.
Toivanen and her mother were touring Bozdağ Film Studios, a vast complex in northern Istanbul, where historical Ottoman-era blockbusters like “Resurrection: Ertuğrul” were shot.
Some 12,800 kilometers across the globe in Villa Carlos Paz in Argentina, 66-year-old retired teacher Raquel Greco watches an episode of a Turkish romantic comedy, surrounded by memorabilia from her once-in-a-lifetime trip to Istanbul where she visited landmarks she knew from years of watching Turkish shows.
“It seemed to me that I was dreaming, I couldn't believe I was living what I saw every day in the series,” she said of her visit in April this year.
The global popularity of Turkish TV dramas, or dizi in Turkish, has thrust Türkiye into the position of a leading exporter of television, greatly bolstering the nation’s international image and drawing millions of viewers and tourists worldwide to its historical and cultural sites which are backdrops to many of the shows.
The success of television shows has fueled a burgeoning billion-dollar industry that continues to expand into new markets, experts say.
Between 2020 and 2023, the global demand for Turkish series increased by 184%, positioning Türkiye as one of the biggest exporters of TV shows around the world, according to Parrot Analytics, a research company.
“We reach over 400 million viewers every night around the world,” said İzzet Pinto, CEO of Global Agency, which exports Turkish dramas to world markets.
Although “Deli Yürek” was the first Turkish series to be exported — to Kazakhstan in 2001 — it was the 2005 romantic series “Gümüş” that catapulted Turkish dizis to global fame.
Once an importer of Latin American telenovelas, Türkiye is now exporting its dramas to the region. Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro visited the set of the historical drama series “Resurrection: Ertuğrul” in 2018, highlighting the appeal of the dizi in his nation.
Haley Uganadi, the founder of the Turkish TV series fan platform “Dizilah,” says the popularity of the dramas comes from themes that focus on family, friendship, and love, usually set against the backdrop of luxurious lifestyles in Istanbul or Turkey's rich history.
“They offer something for everyone, regardless of where you are from. Watching Turkish dramas, I see reflections of my mom, myself, and my siblings,” Uganadi said.
Pinto points to the family-oriented nature of Turkish dramas. “There’s no nudity, no cursing or bad words, not much hate. So, this becomes watchable by the family,” he explains.
As the industry grows, it is expanding the themes of its series, such as “Red Roses,” which explores the dynamics between a staunchly secular Western-oriented family and a fictional Islamic brotherhood.
During a lull in filming, actor Özcan Deniz said this diversification was essential if the industry is to flourish.
“Countries that were not able to transform [into] a different genre are now lagging behind in the export of series,” Deniz said. “Türkiye has now caught this momentum, but if it cannot diversify, if it cannot also tell different things, it will end somewhere.”
