Malaysia's "Emil Emilda" - The Other Uglies outside Betty's World

Contributed by: Tony Lagarto

Malaysia's "Emil Emilda", which premiered on TV3 in 2007, seemed to have elements from "Yo soy Betty, la fea", "Mi Gorda Bella", and "El Amor no es como lo pintan", among other Ugly Duckling/Cinderella stories. The program was shown at 10:30pm, Tuesday through Thursday, with a total of 25 episodes.

Sharifah Amani starred as Emilda, a bespectacled geeky filing clerk who worked at a television station in Kuala Lumpur. She had moved to the big city to become the next Normala Shamsudin, Emilda's idol. Through her combination of intelligence and diligence, Emilda caught the attention of the station's CEO, Tan Sri Baseera (Jalaluddin Hassan). The CEO soon discovered that his long-lost son, Boboi, who had been missing following a plane crash in Pahang 20 years earlier, had supposedly been sighted. En route to a follow-up regarding the information about his son, Tan Sri was killed when his private helicopter crashed. It was then revealed that he had specified in his will that Emilda should be his temporary replacement as CEO until his son and rightful heir could be located.

Read more...

Emilda was then thwarted in her efforts to be successful in her new position by Tan Sri's petty and vain niece, Darleena (Zizie Ezette), who wanted the company's top post for herself. Apparently, in order for Emilda to maintain her position she had to be married, so the company's lawyer, Nazeem (Roy Azman), and Emilda's two gender-confused friends, Mac (Isma Yusoof) and EJ (Noorkhiriah), helped her by finding Emil (Aaron Aziz), who agreed to become Emilda's husband, even though he just thought of the marriage as a paying job with health benefits.

At first, Emil's behavior towards Emilda was demanding and brusque, but eventually his attitude softened and Emilda started to fall in love with her pretend husband. Matters were complicated further by a woman and child that Emil would have secret meetings with.

Darleena had two accomplices: her mother, Darweena (Hamidah Wahab), and Shasha (Nadia 'Luscious' Aqilah), the office bimbo who dreamt of becoming an actress. The three women tried to sabotage Emilda at every turn. At one point, Shasha was disguised as an Indonesian maid so she could be installed in Emil and Emilda's luxurious loft to spy on them.

• You can visit Tony's Other Uglies — shows that were probably inspired by Colombia's Betty here 

You can check out EmilEmilda's YouTube Video below:

---