RIYADH, 27 August — More than four million Indians living in the Gulf states, including over 700,000 non-resident Keralites in Saudi Arabia, will have the opportunity to watch a new Malayalam television serial, Chithralekha, to be aired by Asianet from Sept. 7.

This serial is the first of its kind to be produced by leading Indian artists in cooperation with a group of NRKs living in Saudi Arabia.

Thomas Sebastian, Chithralekha’s director, said here that “the telecast of this serial will be beamed to viewers all over Saudi Arabia, India, Middle East and Europe next month. The serial will be aired during prime time in Saudi Arabia every Friday between 8.35 p.m. and 9:00 p.m.” Chithralekha is being produced by Desert Media, a company formed by expatriate Indians.

Sebastian said that Desert Media, with which several NRKs have been associated, seeks to produce high-quality, Indian oriented and people-friendly television serials, which will be different from the traditional serials currently viewed on TV channels. He added that an agreement has been signed with Asianet to transmit 52 episodes of Chithralekha.

Referring to the members of the production team working on this serial, Sebastian said that Siby Malayil, the national award winning film director, is the supervisor of this project. G. S. Anil and Premraj are working as script writer and cinematographer respectively. Jyothir Mayi, an acclaimed dancer, is playing the lead female role.

This is in addition to a long list of several other renowned artists like Saikumar, Jaganath Varma, Sudheer, Augustine, Yavanika Gopalakrishnan, Nisar, Sadiq and Sridevi playing leading roles on the screen. The shooting locations are mainly in Bombay and Kerala. But some advertizing clips have been shot in Saudi Arabia for some Saudi commercial organizations, which have bought a number of advertising slots.

Sebastian, who is seeking advertizing support from various commercial organizations in the Kingdom, said that “we have chosen Asianet to telecast this serial because it has got the largest number of viewers in the Indian state of Kerala. He said that Asianet, which is the first Malayalam satellite TV channel, is watched by 100 percent NRKs living in the Middle East including Saudi Arabia.”