Tshedza Pictures has proven its Midas touch in Mzansi’s television entertainment scene, with the production house challenging the status quo of television content related to drama series, soapies and telenovela by going all out to introduce different settings.
The brains behind the production house’s major works, award-winning producer Phathutshedzo Makwarela, has done amazing work with his writing, evident in top shows.
In 2013, he was the head writer of the first Rockville series, working with Gwydion Beynon. To date, they have produced several telenovelas and soapies including, The River, Legacy, The Republic, Igazi, Giyani: Land of Blood, The Queen and Gomora.
But Makwarela, says his latest offering and highly anticipated Gqeberha: The Empire, was not only to highlight the change of the Eastern Cape city, from Port Elizabeth to Gqeberha, but to bring to the fore the lifestyle of the province’s people.
The content creator and scriptwriter says Gqeberha: the Empire has been the most challenging show he has ever worked on. He reveals that the idea and storyline came after MultiChoice opened an opportunity for the next telenovela to replace The Queen.
Although their bid was rejected at first, they ensured they returned with a mind-blowing idea to “bring back the good old days of what TV used to be”.
“We put a lot of thought on how we would recast an isiXhosa show, something we really enjoyed. There has been a lot of TV work done in the Eastern Cape but all that faded, I don’t understand why,” he says.
The 38-year-old from Mamvuka Village, near Makhado in Limpopo, says he remembers how much he adored working on TV when he was growing up, which is the very reason he was attracted to the television industry.
His love and fascination with storytelling, dates back to his schooling years as teenager “obsessed with watching TV and relishing telling stories”. His journey began when he was an intern on Soul City.
Makwarela told Sunday World he had wild imaginations of days of the old oral storytelling, prompting him to think about how to go about entertaining his audience in the form of stage plays and this led to scriptwriting. At first, his parents failed to understand his passion, neither did they fathom he could study and become a professional in that space. He persuaded his uncle to convince his parents, who eventually relented, and allowed him to study television and filmmaking at the Tshwane University of Technology, instead of going the motor mechanic route.
“I remember watching a lot of isiXhosa shows growing up. So, after realising our work was limited in Gauteng and KZN because of the saturated nature of the industry, we could not do Cape Town as it is expensive, our next destination was the Eastern Cape.
“This is the change we need in the industry. People love change, they get bored of the same thing. I remember we did Igazi, which revolved around the royal family, soon everyone mimicked us and everything on the small screen was about witchcraft.
“I am always anxious when it is time for our shows to play. I know I cannot control what people want to watch, but I am always anxious of the final product, hoping nothing goes wrong.”
Makwarela is not giving up soon on showcasing his talent; for him this is only the beginning as he spends sleepless nights contemplating his next big production.
Tshedza Pictures boasts a string of awards, including the prestigious Golden Horn Award for Best Telenovela and Golden Horn Award for the Most Popular Soapie or Telenovela.
For the latest entertainment news from Sunday World, click here.
Or read the latest from Shwashwi here.
Follow @SundayWorldZA on Twitter and @sundayworldza on Instagram, or like our Facebook Page, Sunday World, by clicking here for the latest breaking news in South Africa. To Subscribe to Sunday World, click here.
