Veteran Egyptian actress Mally Zaied Cairo – Mohamed Allouch Veteran Egyptian actress Mally Zaied laments the fact that drama productions have seen a significant reduction compared to previous years. Speaking to Arabstoday in an exclusive interview Zaied also confirmed she will return to film her new drama series Been Shoteen, written by Abdel Rehim Kamal and directed by Omar Abdel Aziz.
She said: "Drama and cinema production is a very important industry in Egypt. The same as cement, steel and tourism industries because it is considered a source of hard currency and many people benefit from it. Artists, writers, directors or workers, it employs millions of people and they want to destroy it in order to make all these people unemployed, all this for the favour of who?” she asked.
She added: "We started to film Been Shoteen a week after the revolution started and then we stopped it as all works at that time; we will start it again in the coming days."
Zaied doesn't agree with the idea that there are many series during Ramadan. She said the 70 dramas is a small number and that production is weak.
“In the same year I started in the Badarah series there were another 120 series, and if we compared it with this year you will find there are a lot less, because work introduced in Ramadan is broadcast on the satellite channels for the whole year.”
She recently met with the president and wanted to reassure artists about the state of the drama and film production.
"I hope to apply what was said in the meeting with the president in the meeting with the artists and to save the art and defend it from this attack that reached every one,” she articulated, pointing out that the reason she cried at the Egyptian Actors' Union club conference was because she felt sad about the way actors are treated.