By Emmanuel Ukudolo, Tuesday, July 17, 2019
LAGOS, Nigeria – At a time when the likes of Zeb Ejiro, Tunji Bamishigbin and Opa Williams have practically turned their backs on production of soap operas for lack of corporate patronage, Zeeworld made its entry into the Nigerian airspace and today, it is visable almost in every home.
The storylines may not be too appealing but with carefully planned intrigues, some very annoying, the producers have managed to put Zeeworld on the front burner.
Consequently, when Zeeworld muted the idea of producing Mahek, and restricted the audition to South Africa, art enthusiasts felt embarassed that the producers could foreclose Nigeria, where 95 percent of adverts in all the soap operas emanate.
Mahek turned out to be a showpiece for Africa and India, bringing to play a mixture of Indian actors and South Africans who are supposed to represent the African continent.
Mehek, as you would have noticed is the story of a young girl fromIndia(Mehek), whose love for cooking is closely tied to her mother’s memories. Mehek falls in love with Shaurya (Karan Vohra), a very dashing, rich and arrogant cheff.
On the side is Eddie Gabela (Ndaba ka Ngwane), a successful businessman from Africa who moved to Delhi with his family, made up of Shonisani Mesutha(Nora), and Dennis, born to Ndaba Ka Ngwane and Leletti. Bhuvah Kaila plays Nora’s boyfriend in Mehek.
Mehek should be a classic soap that would combine glamour, sex appeal and the best of acting to hold the whole of Africa spellbound with a corresponding advertising revenue.
There is so much flamboyance and classic acting when you put into consideration the calibre of actors paraded on the Indian side. But same cannot be said of those paraded as representation of Africa.
Besides, it is myopic and narrowminded to project only South African acts to the whole of Africa for a soap that is airing in South Africa, West Africa and East Africa.
The casting director missed a great deal of opportunity to situate the soap for a strong appeal in the three African region by bringing in at least one known artiste from each of the regions for appeal with huge potential for a corresponding advertising revenue.
Forinstance, consider the corresponding impact of one of the following Nollywood acts, Ini Edo, Mercy Johnson Omotola Jelade, Kate Henshaw, Liz Benson, Juliet Ibrahim and Jackie Appiah would have had on Mehek in West Africa and the economic effect of the likes of Lupita Nyongo, Veronica Waceke, Valerie Kimani and Raymond Ofula would had in the East African region.
Zeeworld no doubt needs to have a rethink when next it plans to produce a soap that would fuse perfectly into the India and African setting for maximum economic gain.
