A New Face on Soapie, 7De Laan

A ‘new face’ on soapie, 7de Laan

UKZN’s multi-talented Professor Suria Govender has certainly been bitten by the acting bug as she is now set to appear on the hit South African Afrikaans soapie 7de Laan later this month.

Govender will play Asha’s mom, Mrs Sharma, who comes to Johannesburg to visit her daughter who has found a job there. ‘She is very protective when she finds out her daughter succumbing to the charms of the handsome Sanjay especially as mom has her sights set on Asha’s childhood friend who is a very suitable prospective son-in-law and who has just returned from studying at Harvard,’ she explained.

Govender had initially auditioned for the role and was ecstatic when she was notified she had landed the coveted part. Amidst juggling her son’s wedding and her PhD studies in Higher Education, Govender proved that she had it in her to strike a balance and deliver a stellar performance.

She had to work 12-hour filming days and also spent many weekends filming on set either in Johannesburg or Durban. While comparing her experiences on the set of 7de Laan as opposed to being on set for the movie, ‘For better or worse’ she said, ‘Being sensitive to many cameras and being given the next day’s script when you left the 7de Laan set each evening, was very different to single camera shoots with the complete script available from the first day, but all in all both were extremely demanding acting experiences.’

Govender also pointed out that the creation of Mrs Sharma illustrated that the scriptwriters of the soapie did their homework because they wrote her character as a modern Indian mom and not necessarily stereotypically Indian in attitude or dress.

‘I’d rather think of my character as any mom - Afrikaans, Indian or Zulu for that matter - that keeps an eye out for a good match but loves her daughter enough not to force her to do anything,’ she said.

Asked about working alongside veteran actors Ms Kajal Bagwandeen, Ms Usha Khan and Mr Strini Pillay, Govender said, ‘I’ve played Kajal’s mom before and we know each other well as both of us are very active in the dance world. I enjoyed working with Strini Pillay especially as I was his lecturer at UDW’s Drama Department and both of us had a scene together which we had a great time rehearsing.

‘Usha Khan was enormously helpful making sure I knew exactly where to go for hair and make-up wardrobe, and blocking and of course for the food! You’ll be surprised how fast 12 hours can go if you have 3 scenes, 3 sets of clothing and 3 different scripts you have to get your head around,’ she said.

Viewers can expect to catch Govender on 28 May as she rocks up in Hillside.

FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT: Professor Suria D Govender School of Languages, Literature and Linguistics Tel: 031 260 7141 Mobile: 083 543 6949 Fax: 031 267 2657 Email: [email protected]

A photograph is available on request – please contact Raylene Captain-Hasthibeer ([email protected]) or call 031 260 8737.

Issued by Nomonde Mbadi

Executive Director: Corporate Relations

University of KwaZulu-Natal