French TV Executive Aims to Entertain North Africa, Too
By Aida Alami
PARIS
— Bouchra Rejani’s parents had planned her career for her: She would
pursue medical studies and become a doctor. At 18, Ms. Rejani responded
by lowering herself out a window of the family home in Cholet, a small
town in western France, and leaving. For good.
She
has been on her own since, and perhaps that is one reason Ms. Rejani,
now 42 and one of the most successful television production executives
in France, never bothered to consider that being an Arab immigrant could
be an obstacle in a country that has had a troubled history of
integrating people from her background.
“Since
I was little, I’ve never felt different,” Ms. Rejani said. “I never ask
myself how an Arab woman can be successful, or that I have to work
twice as hard as others.”
Ms. Rejani is the chief operating officer of Shine France,
a subsidiary of Shine Group, a News Corporation company run by
Elisabeth Murdoch that has produced “MasterChef,” “The Voice” and “Ugly
Betty.” Ms. Rejani was involved in the formation of Shine France in
2009, and it has since become the biggest production company in the
country, with more than two dozen programs, including reality shows,
scripted series and documentaries.
Five years ago, she was an executive with FremantleMedia France,
one of the production companies that had long dominated the French
market, when Thierry Lachkar, who had been involved in producing reality
shows in France, approached her with the idea of starting a new
venture. She said it took him two hours to persuade her to quit her
comfortable job and join a start-up with fewer than 10 people.
“We
didn’t want to produce futility or programs that didn’t make any
sense,” Ms. Rejani said in her office, which has an expansive view of
the Eiffel Tower and is in walking distance of the headquarters of her
customers, the major networks. “I liked the idea of producing feel-good
programs that were about surpassing yourself and transmitting
knowledge.”
With
Mr. Lachkar as chief executive, Shine France began positioning itself
to compete with Fremantle and the country’s other television production
giant, Endemol France.
“Everyone thought we would fail,” she recalled. “It was our baby, and I always believed it would work.”
In
2010, they had a shaky start with a French version of “MasterChef.”
That was chiefly because it started in August, a month when fewer French
can be found in front of their television sets. Yet this is also a
country where chefs and cuisine have long been held in high esteem.
Eventually the show caught on, and the company went on to produce other
successful transplants, like “The Voice.”
Born
in a working-class neighborhood in Casablanca, Morocco, Ms. Rejani
moved to France with her family when she was 6 months old. Her parents,
who kept Moroccan traditions at home and spoke Arabic to her, sold
produce in Cholet.
After
leaving Cholet at age 18, she moved to Nantes, where she rented a
studio with the help of a few friends and began attending the University
of Nantes. To support herself, she took three jobs simultaneously:
teaching English, which she had learned in school and by watching
movies; babysitting; and working at a tobacco store. Working hard was
not a challenge, she said, because she had helped with the family
business every weekend since she was 9.
She
then enrolled in business school in Nantes after getting a loan —
co-signed by her dentist — to finance her studies. One of her fellow
students later became her husband. She also spent a few months at Ohio
State University as part of an exchange program where, she said, she
developed a strong affection for American culture. After graduation in
1996, she began working in the Paris office of the auditing firm KPMG.
In
1999, she got her first job in the media industry, as a project manager
for Fox Kids Europe in London. “I wanted to go to television hoping to
be one day a cinema producer,” she said in a text message. “I like to be
at the service of storytelling. Cinema takes a lot of time; I like to
see projects quickly come to life.”
In
2004, she joined FremantleMedia France, where she became chief
operating officer before being appointed as chairwoman of TV Presse
Productions, a news agency and Fremantle subsidiary.
Emboldened
by the success of Shine France, Ms. Rejani decided to take her
experience to northwest Africa, or the Maghreb. Until now, when a
network received the rights for a program in the Arab world, it bought
the rights for the nearly two dozen countries of the Arab League. For
instance, viewers throughout the Middle East and North Africa see the
same “Arab Idol,” which has the same basic format as its American
counterpart.
But
in the fall, there will be a version of “MasterChef” for Moroccans
alone. It is produced by Shine France in partnership with a local
production company for the Moroccan network 2M. The programs were shot during nine months and will feature Moroccan chefs and judges.
Soon, Algeria will have its own version, as well.
“There was no justification that shows like ‘Arab Idol’ should be shown across” the entire Arab League, Ms. Rejani said.
“We
don’t have the same culture, language or food,” she added. “Audiences
and advertisers were waiting for this. We found the right formula. With
‘MasterChef’ in Morocco, we open the door to adapting international
formats in this region. In these countries, there is a duality between
tradition and modernity. But everyone wants entertainment. The themes of
these programs are universal, and they find their place everywhere,
under all formats.
“After the Arab Spring, there is more freedom of speech, but speech is not completely free yet.”
In
May, the far right, in France as well as other countries, won a
stunning victory in the European parliamentary elections, worrying many
about the consequences for the country’s immigrant population. Ms.
Rejani says that concerns her, although she quickly adds that her
personal experience has been extremely positive — working for
foreign-owned companies may also have made that easier.
“Maybe
it’s related to the place where I grew up,” she said. “There were no
differences between the French and myself. If I had grown up in
difficult neighborhoods, my experience may have been different.”
Ms.
Rejani, whose marriage ended in divorce in 2009, tries to go home early
when her 8-year-old daughter, Sarah, stays with her, to have dinner and
help with homework.
Though
she has been involved in organizations that promote better relations
between Europe and Africa, she says she does not push for affirmative
action on the job. Her assistant happens to be Algerian-Tunisian; Ms.
Rejani remarked, “Hafida? I hired her because she’s good.”
Still, she realizes that her life has been exceptional.
“If
I were veiled, my experience may have been different — I may have
encountered obstacles,” she said. “One of my teachers once said his best
student was African. I only realized I was African at the age of 8.”
However, she worries about the attention that far-right groups are getting in France.
“There
is a complete political failure in France in integrating its immigrant
population,” she said. “One day or the other, they will have to accept
them. But I don’t think it will happen any time soon.”
You can read the article on the New York Times' Website.
