This director pulls big audience with series; why?

In this piece, the secret recipe of the director’s success in making TV series that draw a great number of audience members is revealed in his own words.

Soltani has directed many hit series such as ‘Setayesh’, ‘After the Rain’ and ‘Youth’. All his series are well-structured with solid storylines and were memorable for the audience almost in all cases.  

The director is meticulous in terms of knowing the taste of his audience. What we see behind the scenes of ‘Setayesh’ is a testament to the fact that Soltani is a skilled director in terms of professionalism and is familiar with the subtlety of making series. Everything is ready, and the voice of Soltani is heard repeatedly calling upon God for His blessing by saying “O’ God!” prior to the shooting of each scene.

We had the chance to talk with the director in the interval between a pause in Narges Mohammadi's shooting for a scene and before the next actor goes in front the camera. We first asked this well-known director about the reasons for the success of his series in society and among people.

He says, “Not just ‘Setayesh’ but any other series for that matter needs to have some parameters to become notable and attract the audience. One of the main factors is the storyline. A story that has a good plot with interesting characters, new narratives, and deals with social issues in society can win the game. These factors, if present in any series, induce the viewer to follow the work and ‘Setayesh’ has had the same distinctive feature.”

The series had a strong and credible story from the beginning. This was one of the most important features. The relations between the characters define the story in more depth as well. The theme cares for the family values.

The titular role by Narges Mohammadi is the main and positive character of the story; she is seen as the Good force against a villain named Ferdows played by Daryoush Arjmand and the contradiction in behavior of these two characters and their obvious and hidden enmity add up to the charm of the series.

Soltani explains about this confrontation:

The presence of a negative character is a necessity in the story. After all, good and evil as well as the confrontation between them build up a story. Yet the obvious thing about ‘Setayesh’ is that even the evil characters in the series are justified as well, and we don't see them all in black and white. The decisions of all the characters, although sometimes not subject to morality, are otherwise according to their circumstances, and this brings the characters closer to reality.

AG/AG