by Thinus Ferreira
StarTimes Media SA says it continues to create new jobs in South Africa's film and TV industry through the use of its Midrand-based dubbing studios to create new voiceover soundtracks in Zulu and other South African languages for global telenovelas on its StarSat satellite pay-TV service - and that several more Zulu-dubbed series are in the works.
eMedia was first to start dubbing international telenovelas for its set of e.tv-packaged TV channels in South Africa into Afrikaans, along with ZEE Africa also doing dubbing work into English and other languages.
This was followed by StarTimes Media SA which started to dub international telenovelas into Zulu. Lately MultiChoice is also using its Dolby Atmos equipped studio in Randburg to now dub Turkish telenovelas into Afrikaans for M-Net's Afrikaans-run kykNET channels on DStv.
"In 2021 StarSat launched its
state-of-the-art dubbing studios in Midrand, South Africa. The main objective
of its new initiative is to adapt its best-performing telenovelas to Zulu and other
indigenous South African languages," says Debbie Wu, On Digital Media (ODM) CEO.
"We are very excited about the possibility of ensuring the widest accessibility of
South African audiences to award-winning telenovelas dubbed into main
indigenous languages."
"Our dubbing initiative continues to create many new jobs
along the value chain. Since the launch of our dubbing studios, we have
recruited and trained numerous South African youth as voice actors, directors,
translators, editors, and sound engineers."
StarSat says that based on the recent success of the Zulu-dubbed version of the Philippine novella The Blood Sisters, StarSat has since launched a
Zulu version of the popular Zee TV novella Waaris: Indlalifa.
StarSat says a diverse slate of more Zulu-dubbed telenovelas from Mexico, South Korea, Spain and India are in the works to be broadcast on StarSat's StarTimes RISE (StarSat 120) channel.
"Running parallel to our novella content adaption strategy is
our focus on delivering the best English novellas to more South Africans," says Debbie Wu.
"We
are proud to announce the broadcast of the Philippine novella La Vida
Lena on the StarTimes Novella E Plus channel. Another novella 'must-see' is Zee Novella's My Left
Side – the story of a powerful woman whose riches-to-rags experience
puts her in direct conflict and interest with a man who has lived in the lap of
luxury his whole life."
La Vida Lena is shown daily on ST
Novella E Plus (StarTimes 128) at 20:40. My Left Side is shown daily on ST Novella E (StarSat 127) at 19:00. Love by Chance is shown daily on StarLife (StarSat 550) at 18:00.
