‘The other Yeşilçam’

Author: Nebahat Tokatli

Cite as:

Tokatli, N. (2025). ‘The other Yeşilçam’: Drama series production in Istanbul. Journal of Creative Industries and Cultural Studies – JOCIS, 13, 99-123. 

Abstract

A particular industry located in Istanbul that produces drama series for television broadcasting and streaming has recently made Turkey one of the world’s largest exporters of this genre. In this article, I loosely describe this industry as ‘the other Yeşilçam;’ as a tribute to Yeşilçam itself – Istanbul’s feature film industry. Since the early 2000s, Yeşilçam has changed its character and revived itself in its own way. However, what is especially interesting has been the manner in which the other Yeşilçam has suddenly emerged, during the same decades, and conspicuously blossomed. This time period is associated with the reign of Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey – more specifically to his premiership (2003-2014) followed by his presidency (2014 and onwards). One of the focuses here is on the extent to which the cultural products of these industries (especially the drama series) has been bound up not only with commercial matters but also with political and cultural matters (basically in terms of identity-related and otherwise cultural collisions in Erdoğan’s Turkey), as well as Erdoğan’s eventually successful policy of strictly controlling the media (including, of course, television) in the country.

Keywords

Creative/cultural industries, film/television industries, drama series production, Istanbul, Turkey

access full article