Sundaymail Editor
EVER wondered which “freak” could be behind the trend of “Shonarising” popular cartoons and adding voiceovers to clips of international movies?
Speculate no more – The Sunday Mail Leisure recently had an opportunity to interview one Kuda Chamisa, the man behind these works.
Some of his works include Rush Hour 2 where Jackie Chan and Chris Tucker appear to be having a Shona conversation. Jackie Chan is portrayed as a fan of Chibabababa (Soul Jah Love) while Chris Tucker takes the role of a Mabhanditi fan.
His other works include cartoons Princess and the Frog, and Family Guy. Well presented with the highest level of artistic talent, the videos have triggered curiosity among local viewers eager to know the person behind such unique and interesting talent.
Chamisa (29) was born in the high density suburb of Glen Norah and grew up in Mandara before he left the country for Australia in the year 2000. He did his primary education at Zuvarabuda Primary School in Glen Norah and secondary at Ellis Robins Boys High in Mabelreign.
“I started off as a DJ in Sydney, Australia representing my Zimbabwean community.
“Eventually, I started doing puppet shows on popular Zvirikufaya naKedha Facebook page as Ras Platy, which gained immense popularity.
The page had prominent Zimbabwean figures such as Dr Phillip Chiyangwa and (Honourable) Supa Mandiwanzira as participants,” said Chamisa.
“The page attracted a lot of followers, in the initial week it attracted more than a thousand.
The fact that the page was frequently having new followers in large numbers encouraged me to add flavour to it, thus I did my first voiceover clip on ‘Bad Boys’ which went viral surprisingly. The idea of Shona voiceovers came to me when I was watching the movie Bad Boys.”
That marked the beginning of Shona voiceovers on cartoons and movies, which include “Fresh Prince of Bel Air”, among others.
When he started releasing more videos, he realised that his works were uniting Zimbabweans worldwide as they all laughed and commented about his works on social media.
The more his works circulated, his page became more popular and attracted international show promoters who organised shows for him and promoted his talent.
“To promote talent from my native country, I invited actors from the Gringo drama series to my shows.
“I also added charity dance challenges on the page, which included the ‘Chilli Dance Challenge’ with ZiFM Stereo radio presenter Ruvheneko Parirenyatwa. My hope is that those international promoters that are willing to assist me will also assist these talents.”
He said his dream is to become a stand-up comedian. The aspiring stand-up comedian acknowledged the assistance of Zim hip-hop artistes such as Ba Jnr and his partner Summer Rose even though he does most of the voiceovers.
Online Reporter