Soap On A Rope

Season 1 SABC3 (*193) 19:30 Comedy

Ashish Gangapersad was a household name for playing gay extrovert IT guy Prada Naicker on Isidingo (1998-current) from 2012 to 2014. But now the 33-yearold is going for a less dramatic role as scriptwriter Verbal on comedy Soap On A Rope (2017-current)…

Tell us a bit about your character. Verbal writes scripts for [fictional soap] Hard Body but he’s having difficulty being creative and keeping the soapie afloat. And Verbal is a mama’s boy too – that makes for great entertainment. There are a lot of famous faces on the show, like Luthuli Dlamini and Melanie DuBois… It was amazing to work with the likes of Luthuli, Melanie and Sonia Mbele (formerly Sedibe). We had a WhatsApp group going that made it easier to support each other and bounce ideas. How different is a sitcom to a soap? Soaps are shot very differently to a comedy, so there were a few challenges. Comedy uses a lot more movement and bigger expressions, whereas soapies require more emotion from actors. Tell us about the biggest challenge filming Soap On A Rope. [Laughs] Getting it all filmed in 13 days. That’s one episode every day. We were all thrown into the deep-end with that deadline but you know what? We pulled it off and a big thanks goes to creator Gray [Hofmeyr]. And how did it go working with Gray, since he created Isidingo? I didn’t get to work with Gray on Isidingo as he’d left long before my time. But working with him on this show was mind-blowing. He is the Clint Eastwood of local TV because he has a clear vision of what he wants to do and he is always willing to listen.