Cairo: On the first day of filming, producers of Asmahan, a TV series dramatising the life of an Arab legendary singer, slaughtered a cow - a tradition in Egypt to dispel the evil eye.

However, a few days before the show is due to go on airwaves, it finds itself at the centre of a court tug-of-war.

In May, Faisal Al Atrash, a nephew of Asmahan, who died in a mysterious car crash in 1944 in Egypt, went to a Cairo court, demanding the show be banned.

In his lawsuit, Al Atrash accused the show-makers of showing disrespect to his family by "presenting a slanted view based on untrue facts" of his aunt and her brother Fareed, a famous singer who died in 1976.

Though the court turned down Al Atrash's request, he did not give in. He filed another suit last month, pushing for banning the marketing and showing of the drama.

Based on book

"This show is based on Asmahan? the Game of Love and Intelligence Service, a book published in Egypt in 1996," said Esmail Kutkut, a Jordanian producer of Asmahan. He added that no-one, including Asmahan's family, objected to the book. "This means that the information on which we depend in dramatising Asmahan's life is historically correct," Kutkut said in press remarks.

Kutkut has jointly produced Asmahan with Egypt's State-owned Media City.

"The series is, moreover, written by Mamdouh Al Atrash, a cousin of Asmahan, who has got a registered power of attorney from 150 members of Al Atrash family to go ahead with making the show."

Alleged links

Born in 1912, Asmhan, whose real name is Amal Al Atrash, came to Egypt where she launched an illustrious-but-short music career. The drama also tackles Asmahan's alleged links with the British intelligence service and her troubled marriages.

Ten Arab satellite TV channels have bought the right to broadcast the show in Ramadan when viewing rates usually peak in the Arab world.

The title role is played by the Syrian actress Sulaf Fawkhraji.

The show, directed by the Tunisian Shawqi Al Majri, also features actors from Egypt and Tunisia.

The makers of Asmahan have fired back, and filed a lawsuit against Faysal Al Atrash to stop him from trying to ban the show.

"We have filed another suit, demanding 1 million pounds in damages from Faisal for slandering the series and its crew," said Kutkut, the co- producer.

He expects Asmahan to be as widely popular with viewers as King Farouk a TV series shown last year about the life of Egypt's last monarch.

Objections: Banned in syria

Syria will not be showing the Asmahan series. Syrian information Minister Mohsen Bilal gave orders to Syrian television to "take all necessary measures to prevent the broadcasting, marketing, or selling the series before all legal issues are settled in court."

Two weeks ago, the producers of the much-anticipated series held a big reception in Damascus, announcing that they had finished filming the 30-episode show.

This angered the powerful Al Atrash family, who appealed to Bilal to halt the project, saying: "Its script depicts the late Asmahan as a woman who offers her body with no self-respect. It also showed that her brother Fouad used to live off his sister's income and beat her when she did not pay him."

They were also angered that the legendary Fareed Al Atrash is shown as "a weak man with no power who squanders his sister's reputation."

The controversy has caused more than a stir in artistic circles of Syria, since this is the third time such a crisis snowballs over television dramas. One was a produced work on Syria's late poet Nizar Qabbani and the other was a unfinished series on former Syrian President Shukri Al Quwatli.

- Sami Moubayed, Correspondent