ZEEL appoints Sunita Uchil to head up its new co-productions and co-development division.

Zee Entertainment Enterprises (ZEEL) has promoted Sunita Uchil to executive vice president of its new international co-production and co-development division at ZEE.

ZEE is looking at doing more international co-productions, for instance Mehek that recently started on Zee World (DStv 166) in South Africa and across sub-Saharan Africa, with Zee Africa that smartly utilised the back-end infrastructure of an existing Bollywood show before it shuttered to recreate and create a customised version for African audiences by inserting an African cast.

Sunita Uchil in her new role based in Mumbai, India, will work with production companies around the world to co-create and produce both scripted and non-scripted programming.

Sunita Uchil was previously Zee’s chief business officer for international ad sales and global syndication and led Zee's international syndication division since its inception in 2012.

Here she spearheaded several co-production series, including the company’s first global blue-chip documentary, The Life of Earth from Space, on which she served as an executive producer.

Sunita Uchil developing both scripted and factual co-productions including the recent African drama series Deceptive Measures, an adaptation of popular Indian drama series Pavitra Rishta and Oba Nisa, an adaptation of the popular Zee TV series Tujhse Hai Rabbta (Cosmic Connection) which launched in Sri Lanka.

Sunita Uchil says "Stories are my passion and I am grateful to our CEO and ZEE for giving me the space to bring new global stories to light".

"True to our motto - that together we are extraordinary - I aim to seek out and partner with the best producers in the world to create compelling content which will be enjoyed by audiences worldwide."

Amit Goenka, CEO of international broadcast business at ZEEL, says "Sunita is a special creative and business executive, with strong content and commercial visions, along with the fortitude and ability to implement them".

"She has not only built up our international ad sales and syndication businesses, she has been instrumental in finding the right projects for successful co-production projects. We are excited to see what she does in this new role and expect she will bring all her experience and creative acumen to the role."

'The entire Soweto watches us': Zee Africa boss, Harish Goyal, on the origin-story and growth of the Zee World channel that has now led to the first-ever Bollywood drama series, Mehek, that includes an African cast.

Mehek, a new African-infused Bollywood telenovela starting on 6 April at 21:00 on Zee World (DStv 166), is an African first and marks a bold step forward for Zee World that has just turned 4 years old, testing the appetite and demand under African viewers to see black characters reflected back in Bollywood and introducing a cross-cultural love-story romance in a first-ever Africa-Bollywood drama series adaptation.

Mehek came about when Zee Africa was presented with the opportunity to adapt the Bollywood telenovela Zindagi Ki Mehek (Essence of Life) from Zee after filming in India but before the studio sets in Delhi got struck and while the Indian cast was still available.

Zee Africa jumped and in record-time got an African cast from South Africa together who went to Indian to film new scenes and an integrated story.

With new scenes filmed at a furious pace between October and December 2018 using the same directors and writers, Zindagi Ki Mehek was re-edited with the newly written script and filmed scenes to create the re-imagined and adapted version, now localised for African audiences with the Gabela family inserted.

While Mehek (still) refers to Mehek (Samiksha Jaiswal), a passionate chef who falls in love, Mehek now include the Gabela family that moved from Africa to India after son Dennis (Kamogelo Mogale) has been accused of a crime, father Eddie (Ndaba ka Ngwane), mom Leleti (Nomava Kibare) and daughter Norah (Shonisani Masutha) who falls in love with Karan.

Talent agency Thespians provided the actors for the Gabela family with agent Marius Meyer who lived together in the same accommodation in India for the duration of filming.

"Our extraordinary journey started 4 years ago on 3 February 2015 when we launched Zee World," said Harish Goyal, the CEO of Zee Africa & Asia Pacific, at Thursday evening's media launch event of Mehek in Johannesburg.

"Zee World was launched with 4 fresh hours per day, Monday to Friday. Then, within a year, we introduced our 5th fresh hour and it became 5 new hours per day during prime time during 2016."

"Then, last year we started with new content from Monday to Sunday on Zee World. We are one of those very few companies who did this where we brought fresh hours on Saturday and Sunday. So we did something that was different, and this delivered the performance" for the channel that is now available as an HD channel across sub-Saharan Africa.

"Zee came to the African continent and South Africa 20 years back. When we came 20 years ago we thought Bollywood and Indian drama will appeal to South African Indians, so we brought on channel 452 the channel ZEE TV on MultiChoice's DStv," said Harish Goyal.

"Programming was in Hindi with English subtitles and we remained happy and content for 13 years. Then we discovered that the content has a very big appeal under African viewers - African mainstream viewers who watch it."

"So we were chasing 1.5 million South Asians where actually the market was 1 billion Africans. What we discovered was that the content has to be brought in a language that Africa understands. The research that we did 7 years ago showed that there's a great cultural relevance between India and Africa - our joint love of food, music, dance, and family values."

"People thought there must be a big cultural difference between India and Africa and the answer is no; there is a very big cultural relevance. Finally, when we launched Zee World, the results show that the entire Soweto watches us,' said Harish Goyal.

"We started asking in 2016, 'When are we going to start seeing ourselves on the channel?' That is when the idea started of bringing local content to Zee World. Of course it takes time. Finally, we're starting to see African stars with Indian stars, working in India."

'We have brought Africa and India together'
Ratna Siriah, head of business at Zee Africa, at Thursday evening's launch event said "a big thank you to my marketing and programming team in Africa and the producers in Indian who made Mehek happen in a very, very short time".

"The African actors know how difficult it has been for them as well - and everyone pulled through."

"The journey of Mehek - as Harish Goyal spoke about the journey of Zee World - finally it had to come to that. Mehek is here because of the success of Zee World in Africa that we have seen," said Ratna Siriah.

"The key question we started getting from viewers was 'When will they see themselves as part of Bollywood?' I think with Mehek that is what we have finally achieved where we have brought Africa and India together on one screen."

"This has happened for the first time in the history of Bollywood series. This hasn't been done before. This is the first innovative step; something that Zee has taken."

The story of Mehek
"The story of Mehek revolves around an orphan girl called Mehek. Mehek in Hindi means 'fragrance' and you associate that word with food; the fragrance of food, the fragrance of flowers - everything that is nice and beautiful is called mehek," explained Ratna Siriah.

"So you could have a person who has a beautiful personality and I would say 'The mehek of that person is beautiful'. So it's a fragrance that comes from everything that is beautiful."

"So Mehek's whole story revolves around cooking. The story has love, it has betrayal. It has revenge, it has forgiveness. And now to add into the mix of all that we have the Gabela family from Africa that's arrived in India and they are trying to find their place in a country where the culture at the outset looks very different."

"Slowly they come to know, as we've learnt here in South Africa and Africa, that it's not all that different - that we all can live together.

"In Mehek the family's daughter Norah (Shonisani Masutha) is not at all happy when the family moved to India at all and you will see her throw all sorts of tantrums. But of course, she finds a very hot someone ..."

"The family finally makes India their home and you will see all of that in Mehek that has over 200 episodes with a new episode daily. There's a lot of drama coming in Mehek."

"The story of Mehek puts a spotlight on the connection between Africa and India," says Ratna Siriah.

"Our dances may be different, but our passion for dancing is the same. Our families may be different, but our respect for our elders is the same. Our fashions may be different, but our flair for colours is the same. Finally, our food may be different, but our love of food is the same - and that is what Mehek bring together on Zee World as our latest series."


ALSO READ: The first Bollywood TV production with African actors in the cast and filmed in India, Mehek, to premiere on Zee World in April.
ALSO READ: IN IMAGES. 30 photos of the media launch of Zee World's Mehek drama series in South Africa as the first to feature the inclusion of an African cast.
ALSO READ: ZEEL's Zee World channel celebrates 4 years in Africa with phenomenal viewership growth for its Bollywood content; first locally-produced content to be broadcast from April 2019.

IN IMAGES. 30 photos of the media launch of Zee World's Mehek drama series in South Africa as the first to feature the inclusion of an African cast.

On Thursday evening Zee Africa held a media launch for Mehek, its adapted new drama series, filmed in India, and set to start on the Indian-focused entertainment channel Zee World (DStv 166) on Saturday, 6 April at 21:00 as the first-ever Bollywood TV production to include African actors from South Africa 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.

The purple-colour infused media launch took place at The Venue Green Park in Morningside, Johannesburg with the South African executives from ZEE Entertainment Enterprise Ltd. (ZEEL), the South African cast of Mehek, and media in attendance.

ALSO READ: 'The entire Soweto watches us': Zee Africa boss, Harish Goyal, on the origin-story and growth of the Zee World channel that has now led to the first-ever Bollywood drama series, Mehek, that includes an African cast.

ALSO READ: The first Bollywood TV production with African actors in the cast and filmed in India, Mehek, to premiere on Zee World in April. 

ALSO READ: ZEEL's Zee World channel celebrates 4 years in Africa with phenomenal viewership growth for its Bollywood content; first locally-produced content to be broadcast from April 2019. 

The first Bollywood TV production with African actors in the cast and filmed in India, Mehek, to premiere on Zee World in April.

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."