Move over Bollywood stars, our television actors are no less and are quite popular in several countries around the world.
Ekta Kapoor's Kumkum Bhagya, which is one of the top shows on Indian television, is a massive hit in West Africa. The popularity of the soap opera is such that the Ghana U-17 football team wants to meet Abhi (played by Shabir Ahluwalia) and Pragya (played by Sriti Jha) in real life.
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Kumkum Bhagya has been supreme in world TV shows in Ghana since 2015 and with the Ghana football team having played their pre-quarterfinal FIFA World Cup match in Mumbai, the team has expressed their desire to meet the cast of the popular TV serial. Ghana beat Niger 2-0 to progress to the next round.
Kwadwo Agyemang, board chairman of the Ghana National Sports Authority, spoke about his and his team's love for Kumkum Bhagya. "We want to meet and take photos with some of the actors, and even the producer, anyone will do. We don't even mind if it's for five minutes," Indian Express quoted Agyemang as saying.
The show has been dubbed in their native language Twi and is available during primetime on TV. "They can stream it from the Ghana website on their phones to get the translated version, but we have confiscated their phones so they don't get distracted. I watch the show, so they keep asking me what is happening," Agyemang said.
Scratching your head over their craze, given that Kumkum Bhagya is full of uncanny and erratic plot? Well, it seems the local TV shows in Ghana lack good content and hence Kumkum Bhagya has attracted the locals.
"In Ghana, they don't want to invest in a production. Kumkum Bhagya has been aired for so long because people invested in creating sets, wrote scripts, made the plots. The TV shows in Ghana don't have great content, either," he added.
If you are still surprised with the news, let us inform you that in August, Ghana Vice-President's wife Samira Bawumia had posed with the entire cast of Kumkum Bhagya during her visit to India.
