From Mfundi's Mouth

Generations is continuing its viewing success and creator Mfundi Vundla couldn’t be happier.

- Lav Nandlall

If you think the soap storylines playing out on your screens are wild, imagine what it’s like creating the characters, sets and everything in between. That’s life for 71-year-old Mfundi Vundla, who also executive produces Generations – The Legacy. In this exclusive interview, Mfundi chats about his actors, the raunchy sex scene that put the show in hot water and his other projects…

Has your audiences changed over the years and with the 2014 swap from the original soap?

We listen to our audience’s views and we do take into account the things that they rant or rave about. Audiences know the show because some of them have been watching Generations since the beginning in 1994. Interestingly, when you break down the numbers, our audience is mostly made up of the 35-year-old and below-working-class people. So we have to write storylines that attract the demographic and appeal to the market. Our advertisers work accordingly and I think that is what makes Generations – The Legacy a profitable enterprise.

The storylines have also become edgier…

We had to recalibrate the storylines after the tragic incident with the 16 cast members in 2014 [the actors went on strike]. The focus was on building a new and young cast, so we had to add fresher faces and not just your wellknown actors like Connie Ferguson [who played Karabo] and Rapulana Seiphemo [who plays Tau]. To fit in with the younger characters, we had to match the times and culture to their existence. It was extremely different to what we had planned when Generations first started. But our audience was changing and we had to change too, so our storylines became harder and darker.

Have you had any backlash for a plot?