Right after the Ramadan daze of television series and star feuds (Maha Ahmed vs Ahmed El Sakka and Amir Karara, and Ayten Amer vs Riham Haggag), an even bigger dispute has been revealed. This time, it’s a whole corporation against one man. The infamous director Mohammed Sami (The man behind El Prince, Lo’lo’, Kalam 'ala Wara and fresh off his poorly-reviewed Ramadan series Nasl El-Aghrab) is now facing a new ordeal. United Media Services (UMS), the mother company of Synergy Productions, and numerous TV channels (biggest of which are DMC and OnE) have issued an official statement, ceasing future partnerships with the director. As yet, no reasons have been mentioned!

However, journalist Hany Azab posted several reasons why UMS arrived at that decision on his Facebook, although he didn’t mention any sources, so we should take it with a grain of salt. Azab stated that the decision was due to Sami going way over budget shooting the Ramadan series and many complaints from the cast and crew. It is worth mentioning that neither of the lead actors had anything to say to defend their director. Other reasons stated by Azab were not sticking to a schedule when it comes to delivering episodes, nor committing to the approved script, in addition to stretching out his wife May Omar’s role at the expense of other key characters.

Various actors have stated that his behaviour on set was unforgivable. Mariam Saeed Saleh, who played Bostan in Sami’s series Nasl El-Aghrab this Ramadan, said in an interview that Sami was incredibly rude to her, bombarding her and other actors with insults. Saleh also stated that she worked with Sami for several years, yet his temper this year was out of control. It is also worth mentioning that last December, as he started production on the series, news of a huge fight on set broke between background actors and Sami due to him treating them in a similar demeaning manner.

Coming to his defence, actor and longtime Sami collaborator, singer/actor Edward, said on Facebook that throughout the time they have worked together, Sami has been a decent, hardworking human being and that he always treated Edward with love and respect.

As we may never know the actual reasons behind the decision or the truth to all these rumours, the word has been said, and UMS will not be working with Sami again. This is unfortunate for him, as it is the biggest production company out there right now, with only a few films and series not being produced under its umbrella.