Ahmed al-Najjar

Will the Ramadan 2024 drama season mark the end of the 30-episode series? The question has become an issue after more than one production body, male and female star, announced their retirement from working in long-running series, and limited their dramatic appearances during the season to series of 8, 10, and 15 episodes only.

Egyptian producer Gamal El Adl revealed his tendency to contract with other stars after dissolving the artistic partnership that brought him together with the two stars Yousra and Nelly Karim. It continued for many years and resulted in many successful drama classics such as King of My Soul, Ordinary Dreams, Above the Level of Suspicion, Women’s Prison, Under Control and Sunset Oasis. And for 100 wesh and others.

Al-Adl stressed that “every story has an end” and that every star has the right to try himself with others, which is the same right for the producer as well, and that he decided to retire from producing the 30-episode drama and will participate next Ramadan with one or two works of the type of 10- or 15-episode drama.

In turn, Nelly Karim has begun preparing for her next Ramadan series, entitled “Strawberry,” which is the first work that brings her together with producer Ahmed El-Desouki and belongs to the type of comedy works and has 15 episodes. Nelly justified her approach to this type of series by saying that the writing and preparation should be ready sufficiently before filming, unlike the 30-episode works, which require time and filming often begins before they are finished writing.

Ghada Abdel Razek announced that she is continuing the short-episode drama that she presented last year through the series “Talat Al-Talata” and returned to present it again on one of the electronic platforms through the series “Hadath Ha’il,” and stressed that her series next Ramadan will belong to the 15-episode drama.

  n   Bela Obaid is also one of the artists who decided to break into the field of short series with a work that will bring her back to the small screen after an absence of several years since she presented her series “Sukkar Ziyada” in 2020. The new work is titled “Amina’s Heart” and is scheduled to be shown during the Ramadan season in 2024.

Despite the announcement of the postponement of filming the second part of his series Jaafar Al-Omda, Mohamed Ramadan has contracted to star in a work related to the 10-episode drama that will be shown on one of the electronic platforms away from the Holy Month.

Ahmed Al-Sakka is currently filming a series entitled One Last Tour, which is scheduled to be shown on the Amazon platform. He will be the first Arab actor to have his work shown on the international platform. It is a work consisting of 9 episodes in Al-Sakka’s second experience with short works after his series War, which consisted of 10 episodes and was shown last year.

There is no doubt that electronic platforms and the success of the works that were produced specifically to be shown on them have contributed to the direction of all elements of the dramatic process, from authors, producers, actors and channels, to short dramas that find great public success. Perhaps what was witnessed in the series “The Butcher of Giza”, which was recently shown on the Shahid platform, and the controversy and success that accompanied it, is evidence of the success. This type of business.

These series provide the channel with the opportunity to attract sponsors and advertisements and diversify them within a short period, and the producer has the opportunity to finish the work quickly, whether in preparation or filming, and also with a work budget that is approximately half less than a 30-episode drama, and at the same time it ensures electronic or television marketing after its spread on the Internet. All means also save the actor time to present other works so that he does not remain a prisoner of the one work he presents from year to year.

(Prepared by: Ahmed El-Naggar, member of the Egyptian Society of Film Writers and Critics)

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