A homemade video tribute to his late grandmother catapulted Theshen Naicker from a leading bridal makeup artist to a content creator and director, lead actor, screenwriter and executive producer of a big-screen release.
What began in 2016 as a simple video honouring his sharp-tongued, wisdom-laden gran went viral within an hour, birthing the character “Aunty Sheila” and sparking a fan base in the hundreds of thousands.
His movie, My Cousin’s Big Fat Durban Wedding, is on the big screen.
“As a child I always took an interest in theatre and performing arts. I started acting at The Playhouse at nine years old. I became very involved in academics and only after I finished matric did I get back on stage and start performing again. I studied psychology at university and was a teacher and lecturer. I was also one of the leading bridal makeup artists in Durban for 15 years,” he told TimesLIVE.
“In 2023 I put down my brushes and decided to focus on my property business and film production. For many years I have been writing, directing and producing my Aunty Sheila shows and after acting in several local movies that had gone on to be very successful in cinema and on TV screens, it was a natural evolution of my passion into movie making.”
The film, which premiered on Wednesday night, follows Kieran, played by Naicker, tasked with planning his cousin’s Durban wedding in three weeks. He’s never met the groom and discovers at a pre-wedding event that he’s planned an Indian celebration while his cousin is marrying a traditional Zulu man.
“As a writer I felt there was a need to write an interracial love story that brought together the two prominent cultures in Durban: the Zulu culture and the Indian culture. Durban is the home of the bunny chow [and] the Zulu Kingdom, and I felt it was about time we wrote a love story that brought the two cultures together in love and marriage,” he said.
He plans to take a “well-deserved break” but has his eyes on the big screen.
“I shot the movie earlier this year, then went into post-production editing for a few months and worked on scoring with my team. When the movie was ready, I spent time pitching to film distributors to get my passion project onto the cinema circuit.
“While this project was gaining momentum, I also staged an Aunty Sheila theatre production, selling out one of the largest venues in Durban, which required multitasking between the movie and stage production. The film-making bug has bitten and I am writing my next movie script.”
Chrisintha Moodley, who plays Kasturi in the movie, has been on stage with Naicker 11 times.
“I met Theshen on the set of Broken Promises 4 in 2017. I was starstruck because I loved Aunty Sheila. We started talking and getting to know each better. One day shortly after the cinematic movie release in 2018, I was completely gobsmacked when Theshen called me and asked if I would be interested in starring in one of his shows. I thought I was dreaming and couldn’t believe he was asking me. I thought he had called the wrong person,” she said.
Like Naicker, she has been on stage since she was a child.
While there are not many lead or supporting roles for Indian actresses in the industry, Moodley encouraged aspiring actresses to not give up: “Keep trying, go for auditions and one day you will get your big break, like I did.”
TimesLIVE
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