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Authorities said Arslan deliberately set fire to the Dandana Studio on West Passaic Avenue in Rochelle Park around 8:45 p.m. July 23. People were inside at the time but no one was hurt, said Bergen County Prosecutor John L. Molinelli, adding the blaze caused smoke and minor fire damage.
He wouldn’t say, however, what pointed investigators toward Arslan, 32, who is being held on $50,000 cash bail at the Bergen County Jail.
Arslan made his broadcast radio debut in 1997 before moving to Turkish television, according to Dardana’s web site.
He worked as an assistant director on a popular Turkish mystery show, “Teksoy on a Mission,” which launched the career of one of the Middle Eastern country’s most popular TV hosts and producers, Sadettin Teksoy.
Through a mix of mostly bi-lingual variety programs, talk shows and music videos, Dandana TV reaches nearly 3.5 million viewers in the U.S. alone — a demographic it calls “the untapped second and third generation Middle Eastern.”
It was founded by Andy Altahwi, a former Wall Street investment banker who wanted to “open up the lines of communication between the Middle Eastern immigrants and other worldly cultures,” the company’s site says.
Arsdan was a major player in the network’s popularity.
The site lists the producer/director third in importance, just below extremely popular host Zeina Yazbek, who worked for MTV for a time after moving to the States five years ago.
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