The second season of the popular show Blame it on Fame starring Hlelo and Ntando Masina begins on July 14. Black Brain Pictures’ Tumi Masemola was tasked with producing and directing the new show.
While it had 1. 3 million viewers among the young and simple members of our nation, many found it boring and vacuous. However, the new producers of the show – Tumi, Mandla N and TT Mbha – say Blame it on Fame will present a new and challenging angle.
“e.tv earmarked us with this show,” Tumi says. “I was dubious in the beginning, but I have two pushers in the form of Mandla and TT.
“When I met Hlelo and Ntando I could see why their young female audience liked them. They’re sweet girls. What our research revealed was that young females love the fact that they are so thin and pretty and that they are twins.
“After asking around, I realised that their lives have always been (special) like this. They were the last-borns. They are twins. They were the only girls in the family. They were the first black twins in their school. People were fascinated with them then and they are still fascinated with them now.
“They do a lot of fantastic things such as the Campaign for Girls, a mentorship programme for disadvantaged girls.”
Armed with this information, Black Brain decided not to focus on their fame, but instead to present them merely as girls.”We are focusing on what it is like being a modern young woman living in Johannesburg, South Africa, in 2012.
“We are still touched by apartheid where we speak English but our parents and grandparents speak other languages.
“For instance, we went to their grandmother’s village where everyone was so in awe of them. Their grandmother told them that when the other villagers came, they had to speak English. So we look at examples like that.
“Another example is that the two of them wear minis, but in many cultures in this country your thighs are part of your private parts. So how do they balance traditional culture with urban living? How do you marry what you are taught with what it is to be a modern woman living in Johannesburg? We relate and reflect that in every aspect of their lives.”
It seems as if Black Brain have given Blame it on Fame something that was severely lacking in the first season – substance and depth. After all, one cannot compete with the dramas of the Kardashians and their oversized booties because no one can do inconsequential television like the Yanks.
South Africanising Blame it on Fame by dealing with these issues will ensure longevity for the twins as a television brand as well as a lifestyle brand.