Scripted format deal for Eccho’s Elif

Indonesian broadcaster SCTV has ordered a local version of Elif, the Turkish drama distributed internationally by Eccho Rights.

The drama follows a young girl after she is sent away from home to protect her from her dangerous stepfather. Only the head of the household staff knows where Elif comes from.

The Indonesian version of Elif will be made by SCTV’s sister company Screenplay Productions. Production is about to start and the series will launch in January 2016.

SCTV has been airing the original version of Elif, licensing two seasons of the drama series. The original Turkish version of Elif is produced by Green Yapim and airs on Kanal 7.

Banardi Rachmad, general manager for programming acquisition at SCTV, said: “Elif has turned around our daytime programming and had such an unforeseen impact on our audiences. We now want to remake the show to give it more of a local flavour in order to widen the appeal of the show here in Indonesia.”

Nixon Yau Lim, head of Asia Pacific at Eccho Rights, added: “The family-oriented storylines plus just the right amount of drama keeps viewers engaged day after day.”

Eccho has already shopped the finished version of the scripted series to buyers including Netflix in the US and UK.