SABC1's Friday night drama series Tempy Pushas makes its comeback on 7 October at 20h30 and it returns with new starring cast. The original lead characters are blasting back
but three of the main roles have been recast: Kuti, X and Dot.Org, who changes name to Dot.Kom.
Bromance buddies Sdumo Mtshali and Pallance Dladla are no longer playing Kuti and X. Fezile Makhanya (Zone 14, Rockville) has taken over the role of Kuti and Luzuko Nteleko (Mfolozi Street, Zone 14, Single Galz) will be playing X.
They're
the headline characters in the series so what happened behind-the-scenes that resulted in this change?
TVSA spoke to production company Endemol to get the inside scoop. We spoke to Endemol's creative team Brendan Gabriel and Aaron Naidoo who told us that the production loves Sdumo and Pallance and wanted them on the show but they were already committed to other big projects when Tempy Pushas got the go-ahead for a new season.
One of these projects includes Mzansi Magic's new drama Is'thunzi, which stars both of them. It also premieres in October so the timing of the two productions clearly clashed.
Rumours have been doing gossville that a reason for their Pushas departure is that they wanted a bigger pay cheque to stay on the show but according to Brendon and Aaron this wasn't the case.
"No, that was definitely not the discussion that we sat in and had with them," Brendon told us when we asked. "It was nothing to do with money - they've been invested in this project right from the beginning and they love the series."
So that's the story with the bromance. But there's another one to be told and this one is a lot more cryptic: the third character to be recast is Dot.
Org Kom, formerly played by Mothusi Magano. Dot.Kom will now be played by Sibulele Gcilitshana (Society, Saints and Sinners, Soul City and Z'bondiwe).
Yip! Dot.Kom's reinvented himself again and this time, it's gender bender stuff. Sibulele was cast because of schedule conflicts with Mothusi and because the show wanted to take the character in a new direction, described by Brendon as "a very obscure, interesting place which will be quite a shocker for audiences."
It sure will.
The rest of the headline cast remains the same as previous seasons with returning cast including Akhumzi Jezile as Ngulube, Tumie Ngumla as Princess, Camilla Waldman as Alexia and Marah Louw as MaGirlie.
As for what we can expect from the storylines in the new season... it's all about fashion again as it was in Season 1. Fashion and a passion to get back what was lost.
Season 2 ended with Kuti, X and Ngulube losing everything when they lost the House of Bogatsu to Dot.Org and Zen after they were tricked into selling it for a rand.
This season they're pushing back to reclaim their loss. They're also going to start their own new company with Princess as their head designer. It's not as simple as that of course because Kuti develops a secret new obsession, X is lost at sea after his first heartbreak and Ngulube's grasp on sanity might unravel completely.