Aşk-ı Memnu (TV series)

Aşk-ı Memnu Forbidden Love

Based on	Aşk-ı Memnu by Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil
Written by	Ece Yörenç Melek Gençoğlu
Directed by	Hilal Saral Barış Yöş
Starring	Beren Saat Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ Nebahat Çehre Selçuk Yöntem Hazal Kaya
Country of origin	Turkey
Original language(s)	Turkish
No. of seasons	2
No. of episodes	79
Production
Producer(s)	Kerem Çatay
Location(s)	41°9′55.28″N 29°3′9.92″E / 41.1653556°N 29.0527556°E / 41.1653556; 29.0527556 41°13′16.67″N 29°17′44.88″E / 41.2212972°N 29.2958000°E / 41.2212972; 29.2958000
Running time	90 minutes
Production company(s)	Ay Yapım
Broadcast
Original channel	Kanal D
First shown in	4 September 2008 – 24 June 2010

Aşk-ı Memnu (English: Forbidden Love) is a Turkish romantic drama television series originally broadcast on Kanal D between 2008 and 2010.^[1] It is an adaptation of Halit Ziya Uşaklıgil's 1899 novel Aşk-ı Memnu but takes place in contemporary Istanbul instead of the novel's late 19th-century setting.

Plot

Peyker Yöreoğlu (Nur Aysan), Firdevs Yöreoğlu's (Nebahat Çehre) eldest daughter is getting married to Nihat Önal (İlker Kizmaz). Nihat is the son of a rich but cunning businessman Hilmi Önal (Recep Aktug) who dislikes Firdevs knowing she is a greedy, cunning and self-centered woman. Bihter Yöreoğlu (Beren Saat) is the younger daughter of Firdevs Yöreoğlu. She is beautiful and young; blames her mother for her father's death.

Adnan Ziyagil lives in a mansion on the shore of Istanbul's Bosporus strait with his two children, teenage daughter Nihal and eleven-year-old son Bülent. Behlül is the nephew of Adnan. He was brought home by Adnan after his parents died in a car accident. Ms Deniz is the children's nanny and she has been living in the household before the death of Adnan's wife. Adnan falls in love with the much younger and beautiful Bihter. He proposes her and she agrees to marry him even though she knows that her mother fancies him. Soon after Adnan and Bihter get married, Firdevs comes to live with the family. Hilmi Önel tells Adnan that he has made a big mistake by marrying Firdevs' daughter Bihter and warns him that Firdevs will rob his family just like she did to Nihat but Adnan ignores him.

Adnan offers Nihat a job in his office, to which Nihat agrees and Hilmi becomes furious. He swears to ruin Nihat's and Adnan's lives.

Nihal is not very happy with her father's decision of marrying Bihter. She wanted him to marry her French nanny Ms Deniz.

Bihter and Adnan start living a happy life. Bihter tries to be good towards Adnan's children. Now everything is going well. Bihter gets pregnant with Adnan's child. Her mother Firdevs becomes excited and says this child will ensure Bihter's position in Ziyagil family. But Bihter is not ready for the child so early, she talks to Adnan about it that his children have not accepted her yet. She wants to give them more time so they can get attached with her completely. He says they will talk about this issue later and also that he will be with her in her decision but he wanted to think over it again. Bihter gets an abortion without informing Adnan and he gets tensed. Some problems between Bihter and Adnan arise due to this but then are resolved.

Beşir is the Ziyagil family's driver who had been living with the family since he was six years old. Adnan raised him along with Nihal. He was also Nihal's childhood friend. Beşir secretly loves Nihal and can go to any length to see a smile on the innocent Nihal's face. Nihal, on the other hand is madly in love with Behlül, but only Ms Deniz is aware of it. Cemile, the daughter of Ziyagil family's cook Süleyman and his wife Şayeste, has feelings for Beşir.

Everybody knows Behlül is a playboy. Bihter even hated him since he left Peyker. But as she lives in the Ziyagil house, she starts noticing how handsome and young he is and on the other side Behlül has the same feelings for her. Behlül eventually falls in love with her. Bihter rejects but later accepts.

Behlül buys a small house on the riverside but only Bihter is aware of it. Bihter often goes there to meet Behlül. Beşir, however, discovers this and secretly captures a video of Behlül and Bihter. But he fears that if he shows this to the family, Nihal would be heartbroken. Therefore he just leaves the Ziyagil House without informing anyone.

Behlül breaks up with his girlfriend Elif Meryem and comes closer to Bihter. However, he soon realizes that he has made a great mistake and starts avoiding Bihter. Bihter now finds it impossible to live without Behlül.

Firdevs senses change in Bihter's attitude. She uses her maid Katya to spy on her daughter and her family. Firdevs soon discovers everything about Bihter-Behlül affair. She also discovers Nihal's feelings for Behlül and tries to bring Nihal and Behlül closer to each other. Nihal soon reveals that she loves Behlül. Behlül is shocked to hear this because he only loved her as his sister. Soon Beşir finds out that he has lung cancer. The Ziyagil family somehow finds him and he tells Behlül that he knows about his and Bihter's affair and that if he doesn't marry Nihal and keep her happy, he will reveal everything to Adnan. Soon, Behlül gets engaged to Nihal and Beşir is happy to see Nihal happy. Adnan's sister Arsan takes Beşir to her home so that she can take care of him.

Heart-broken and devastated Bihter confronts Behlül. He tells Bihter that their relationship is over, and that he will marry Nihal as to rectify his mistakes. Bihter, knowing that he loves her and is marrying Nihal only out of guilt, breaks down in front of her mother. She says that she is dying and begs her mother to stop the wedding. Firdevs helped her but couldn't stop the wedding. Bihter also discovers that she is pregnant with Behlül's child, but she aborts it when she sees that Behlül is not ready to accept her.

Behlül is caught in a dilemma. He is ashamed of himself for deceiving his father-like uncle and in guilt he leaves Bihter, for whom he had broken off his engagement with Elif, and gets engaged with Nihal.

A day before Behlül's wedding, Bihter asks him to run away with her but he coldly rejects her. As a last resort, on the day of wedding, Bihter confronts Behlül, pointing a gun towards herself, and asks why did he prefer Nihal over her, why did he choose to hurt her instead of hurting Nihal. She asks him whether he will be able to live after losing her and he says "no" but does not have the guts to take the gun from her hand.

Adnan breaks into his bedroom and sees them together. He scornfully reminds Behlül that he treated him like his son. Upon realizing that Behlül does not have the courage to defend his love, Bihter kills herself. She dies for forbidden love. After her death, Behlül visits her grave, asking for forgiveness over his cowardice. He admits that he always loved her and that he is her murderer and of everyone else, nothing would have ended this way if he wasn't the coward that he was, and that it is his punishment that he will have to live with this guilt forever. Behlül leaves Ziyagil family. Firdevs goes into shock over her daughter's death and ends up being paralyzed. She blames herself for snatching her daughter's love from her which resulted in her death.

Adnan moves into a new house with his children, Ms Deniz and the servants (Süleyman, Shayesta, Nesrin, and Cemile) while Nihal is on the path of recovery after Behlül's betrayal.

Characters

Role	Actor	Character
Bihter Yöreoğlu Ziyagil	Beren Saat	The protagonist Bihter is a beautiful young girl who blames her mother, Firdevs for the death of her father. When her mother was planning to marry Adnan Ziyagil, a rich widower, Adnan proposes Bihter instead of her mother. Bihter agrees, but actually she only loves Adnan as a father, not a husband. Adnan already has two children from his first marriage. She soon begins an affair with Behlül, Adnan's nephew and this forbidden love leads her to commit suicide in the end.
Behlül Haznedar	Kivanc Tatlitug	Behlül, the male protagonist, is Adnan's nephew but he had been living with Adnan since he was a kid, when he lost his parents. He has a lot of girls in his life, but he falls in love with Bihter. However, he is not brave enough to defend their forbidden love. He loves Nihal just as a sister.
Adnan Ziyagil	Selcuk Yontem	A rich widower who falls in love with the much younger Bihter. He has two children, Nihal and Bülent.
Firdevs Yöreoğlu	Nebahat Cehre	Bihter's and Peyker's mother. Her husband died of a heart attack when he discovered that she was having an affair. She wanted to prevent the love between Bihter and Behlül.
Ms. Deniz De Courton	Zerrin Tekindor	Nihal's and Bülent's nanny, loves Adnan.
Nihal Ziyagil	Hazal Kaya	Adnan's beautiful teenage daughter who gradually starts to fall in love with Behlül and results in being blindly in love with him. However, in the end she loses him and she, her father and brother and Ms Deniz move from the house to start a new life.
Bülent Ziyagil	Batuhan Karacakaya	Adnan's eleven year old son. Looks up to Behlül, saying that "I just wanna be like Behlül".
Peyker Yöreoğlu Önal	Nur Fettahoglu	Bihter's older sister, Firdevs's daughter, Nihat's wife, Doruk's and Saif's mother.
Nihat Önal	Ilker Kizmaz	Peyker's husband, Hilmi Önal's and Aynur's son, Adnan's brother-in-law and business partner.
Hilmi Önal		Nihat's father. Hilmi hates Nihat because he married Firdevs' daughter against his wishes.
Aynur Önal		Nihat's mother, Peyker's mother-in-law. She is a soft-spoken and kind lady who loves Peyker and Nihat very much.
Beşir Elçi	Baran Akbulut	Driver at Adnan's house. He was orphaned at the age of six so when Adnan found him, he brought him home and raised him along with Nihal. He was in love with Nihal and would go to any length to keep her happy. He knows about the Bihter-Behlül affair.
Süleyman	Rana Cabbar	The cook at the Ziyagil family. He is married to Şayeste and has a daughter, Cemile.
Şayeste		Süleyman's wife and Cemile's mom.
Cemile		Süleyman and Şayeste's daughter. Loves Beşir.
Nesrin		The maid of the house. Engaged to Captain Rıza.
Sait		When Beşir was sick, Sait came to the Ziyagil house as a driver. But actually he was sent by Hilmi to spy the family.
Katya		Mrs. Firdevs's maid who had a crush on Sait.
Pelin		Nihal's friend. Bülent had a crush on her.
Arsen Ziyagil		Adnan's older sister and she cares for Beşir when he is sick.

Series Overview

Season	Number of Episodes	Episodes	Start of the Season	Season Finale	Day and Time of Broadcasting	TV Season	TV Channel
Season 1	38	1-38	4 September 2008	18 June 2009	Thursday 20:00	2008-2009	Kanal D
Season 2	41	39-79 (Final)	3 September 2009	24 June 2010	Thursday 20:15	2009-2010	Kanal D