Will you be watching?
If you live in the Middle East, then you are aware of the love that its people have for dubbed Turkish series. Now, after the success of Bride of Istanbul (Istanbullu Gelin), the series has gotten an Lebanese remake, dubbed Bride of Beirut.
It has been announced that Saudi broadcasting company MBC will produce an Arabic version of the hit show. The show, which is titled Bride of Beirut, stars Tunisian heartthrob Dhafer L’Abidine alongside Lebanese beauty Carmen Bsaibes. They are set to play love interests on the show, who get married in spite of his mother’s opposition – and then the drama begins. The first episode of the series premiered yesterday on MBC 4.
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Photography on the show began late last year in Turkey. Dhafer plays the lead role of “Fares” which was played by Özcan Deniz in the Turkish version. Joining him, Carmen will be portraying Soreyya, which was played by Aslı Enver. Her role was first presented to Lebanese-Australian actress Daniella Rahme, but she was already working on Tango with Basel Khayyat.
In the Turkish version of the show, Fares and Soreyya fall in love in Istanbul, get married and move to Fares’ mother’s ancestral home in Bursa. Soreyya constantly tries to win the affections of her conventional mother-in-law, who has never left the walls of her mansion and manages her family with her own rules. The original series ran for three seasons and was nominated in the Best Telenovela category at last year’s International Emmy Awards.
This is not the first time that the two actors are working together. Last Ramadan, Dhafer and Carmen played the role of husband and wife in Eugenie Nights, which is available now on Netflix. However, unlike their first series together, they are expected to be more loved up on Bride of Beirut.
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Last September, MBC Group launched MBC Studios to produce high-quality films and drama-series. They also partnered with O3 Production, which was in charge of dubbing Turkish shows for the Arab world. Bride of Beirut will be the first series production by the new company. No release date has been announced yet, but it is expected to be sometime towards the end of this year.
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