Mehek, a new drama series filmed in India, is set to premiere on the Indian-focused entertainment channel Zee World (DStv 166) on Saturday, 6 April at 21:00 as the first Bollywood TV production to include African actors as part of the cast.
The landmark drama series for Zee World includes African actors Shonisani Masutha, Kamogelo Mogale, Ndaba ka Ngwane and Nomava Kibare and will broadcast 7 days a week on Zee World.
In February Zee World celebrated its 4th anniversary as an African TV channel run by ZEE Entertainment Enterprise Ltd. (ZEEL), with the channel that has shown a steep upward growth in ratings and revenues over the past 4 years.
Mehek revolves around an aspiring chef looking for love, as well as the various members of a black family from Africa looking for a better life in India, faces the various challenges and tribulations this new journey brings as well as unexpected romantic entanglements.
Mehek is the story of a young girl from Delhi, whose love for cooking is closely tied to her mother's memories. She was raised by her aunt, Kanta, after her parents died. Then there is Shaurya (Karan Vohra) a rich and arrogant restauranteur. Their paths cross, leading to an unlikely relationship - but all is not what it seems.
Meanwhile Eddie Gabela (Ndaba ka Ngwane), a successful businessman from Africa moves to Delhi with his wife Leleti (Nomava Kibare), daughter Norah (Shonisani Masutha) and son Dennis (Kamogelo Mogale).
Dennis has been implicated in a serious crime and whilst the family knows he's innocent they are helpless to save him from these false accusations and decide to leave Africa for his safety.
Norah's love life, however, takes an interesting turn when she meets and falls in love with Karan in India. Their relationship is a colourful imbalance of love and betrayal as the couple forges a life together in India in a groundbreaking Africa-meets-India storyline.
"Mehek represents an important and evolutionary part of Zee World's commitment to providing relevant, exciting and innovative content to its viewers," says Harish Goyal, the CEO of Zee Africa & Asia Pacific.
"Zee is proud of this production and of our African actors; furthermore, it will undoubtedly set a strong foundation for similar productions in the future."
Ratna Siriah, head of business at Zee Africa, says "The decision to develop a Bollywood production with African actors stemmed from Zee World's unequivocal success in Africa and the love showered by our audiences for the channel".
"Zee World has enjoyed tremendous growth throughout the years and Mehek was the obvious next step."
Aletta Alberts, MultiChoice's executive head of content strategy, says "The MultiChoice Group understands the importance of local content to our subscribers".
"As Africa's leading content producer and most loved storyteller, we are delighted that our channel partners such as Zee share this in this vision and investing in showcasing local talent in new innovative ways."
