A Milestone: ‘Arendsvlei’ cele

Image: Supplied

A Milestone: ‘Arendsvlei’ celebrates 500 episodes [photos]

Celebrating the big 500! The cast and crew of kykNET & kie’s first telenovela, ‘Arendsvlei’ celebrated its 500th episode on 19 August.

A Milestone: ‘Arendsvlei’ cele

Image: Supplied

kykNET & kie’s first telenovela Arendsvlei celebrates its 500th episode today! Arendsvlei first aired on 1 October 2018 and the twists and turns are nowhere near the end.

Celebrating Arendsvlei

Initially, the telenovela was only commissioned for one season, but viewers found appeal in it so quickly that two extra seasons were added.

The first and second seasons each aired three times a week from Mondays to Wednesdays and were extended to four episodes a week in the third season. The telenovela is shot at Atlantic Studios in Montague Gardens and Eersteriver.

Arendsvlei’s first season was also nominated for nine SAFTAs and walked away with two of them. Roberto Kyle won the SAFTA award for best actor in a telenovela while Beatrix van Zyl won the SAFTA for the best art department in a telenovela.

Arendsvlei is home to some of South Africa’s greatest talents including Jolene Martin, Jody Abrahams, Crystal Donna Roberts, Melanie du Bois, Kay Smith and many more. In season three, more great actors joined us, such as Vinette Ebrahim, Chris van Niekerk, Natalia da Rocha and Dann-Jacques Mouton.

Grateful for the oppurtunity

The actors and production team celebrated the big milestone on set yesterday with a beautiful cake and bubbly.

Roberta Durrant, the creative producer of Arendsvlei, says she is incredibly grateful to kykNET that they gave Penguin Films the opportunity to tell this story.

“We were able to develop many talents in Cape Town through Arendsvlei. Young actors got their first roles on Arendsvlei and we were able to develop and train new directors, writers, editors and crew members. Congratulations to the team on this great milestone. Your hard work does not go unnoticed,” says Roberta.

Nowhere near the end

Theltom Masimila, the creative producer and creator of Arendsvlei, says he is extremely proud of the actors and production team for all the hard work they put in.

“We look forward to telling the stories of the people of Arendsvlei for a very long time to come. And most important of all, we are grateful to the viewers because without them such a production would not exist,” says Theltom.

Arendsvlei airs Mondays to Thursdays at 19:30 on kykNET & kie, DStv channel 145.