Bollywood spree
SMALL SCREEN EDUTAINMENT: NEW FACES AND PROGRAMMES ON ENCA
Ranging from ancient epics to period crime dramas, contemporary rom-coms and sci-fi.
SABC 3 has announced the launch of its Bollywood Movie Festival starting on Sunday, December 23 at noon and continuing into next year with top quality releases each week.
While the sheer size of India’s film industry is impressive in itself, the channel promises a variety of films, from ancient epics to period crime dramas, contemporary rom-coms and mind-boggling sci-fi, as Indian cinema covers every established film genre and invents some along the way, offering an entirely different kind of film-making.
The epic historical romance, Bajirao Mastani, starts the season in magnificent style, with acclaimed director Sanjay Leela Bhansali telling a timeless story of forbidden love, featuring Ranveer Singh, Deepika Padukone and Priyanka Chopra in the leading roles.
Like South Africa, India is a multilingual nation, and the second festival film will be the Tamil language comedy, Magalir Mattum, with Jyothika leading an ensemble cast in a story about school friends reuniting after a 30-year interval.
Tamil and Hindi films will be alternated throughout the season, with 13 titles in each language, and each film having sub-titles in English.
Of course, the single standout feature that sets Indian movies apart is the integration of music and dance.
Whether you are watching an action thriller or an off-beat psychological drama, there are musical interludes with stunning dance sequences, upping the entertainment factor, while setting up the viewer for the next pivotal chapter in the narrative.
Tune in to the Bollywood Movie Festival 2018-2019 every Sunday at noon on SABC 3.
Exciting new weekends on eNCA
eNCA has introduced new programmes and new faces as part of an ongoing drive to create an exciting weekend line-up.
On weekend mornings viewers will now be in the company of hosts Duduzile Ramela and Nhlanhla Sehume for Morning News Today. From 7am to 9am, they will update viewers on the big news stories of the weekend. Sehume, who just recently made his eNCA debut, is looking forward to joining Ramela, who has already established a fresh and informed weekend morning offering. “eNCA is a leading voice in South African news and current affairs.
“To be part of the new-look programming is a great personal milestone. I’m really excited about the challenge,” Sehume said. He has worked for some leading media platforms, including anchoring drivetime news on Power FM 98.7, and guest presenting on investigative television series, Carte Blanche.
Then from 1pm to 2pm on weekends, there will be an action-packed hour of news, sport and lifestyle updates with seasoned broadcaster Marcelle Gordon. Gordon is a familiar face to viewers, and is delighted to be taking the helm at eNCA Lunchtime.
With 20 years’ experience in journalism, Gordon will bring a wealth of knowledge and energy to the small screen. “eNCA Lunchtime will keep you in the world news loop on the weekends,” she said.
“It promises to be fast-paced, with lots of live news reportage. If it’s happening, we’re on it.”
At 5pm, Gareth Edwards and Faith Mangope will take you through the evening news on NewsNight. Edwards has been working mostly behind the scenes for the channel in recent years, but now is taking up a regular anchoring gig on weekends.
“eNCA has been my home for more than a decade. There was no doubt in my mind when I was asked to join our on-air division in a more permanent capacity again that this was where I wanted to be,” he said.
Equally well known, Faith Mangope, a successful businesswoman who anchored Sunrise on e.tv for a number of years, said that broadcasting and telling South Africa’s stories, in particular, was her passion.
The two promise to provide up to the minute news and a dash of fun as well. NewsNight runs from 5pm to 8pm on Saturday, and from 5pm to 7pm on Sundays. – Citizen reporter