With 800 episodes, Selina has paved the way for other Swahili telenovelas

Anyone who’s paid attention to local TV in the last three years will agree that Selina has been a gamechanger. While it wasn’t the first of its kind – the Swahili telenovela – when it premiered in January 2018, Selina revived the almost forgotten genre and paved the way for other, similar projects that were to follow. Armed with a tale as old as time – a Cinderella story, star-crossed romance but with local flair – and charming leads (Celestine Gachuhi, a newcomer at the time, and Pascal Tokodi), Selina showed the local TV industry what was possible, not only for creators but for fans too, and they were rewarded for it.

In the three years that Selina has been on the air, it has won back-to-back Kalasha Awards for Best TV Drama in 2018 and 2019, no small feat for director and producer Reuben Odanga. “It’s one of my biggest highlights because no other Kenyan TV show has been able to do that,” he says.

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Odanga, who’s also helmed other Swahili projects like Saida, Nuru and Nira, reveals that not many believed that a project like Selina could be a success on Kenyan TV. He commends Maisha Magic East and MultiChoice for taking what he calls a “bold initiative” that has paid off in more ways than one.

“Selina has broken the glass ceiling, and it plays a very important role in the industry because it’s been a first in many ways,” Odanga says.

Currently in its sixth season, Selina just clocked its 800th episode, another first in Kenya, but its biggest brag still remains the viewership it has been able to net since season one.

On Maisha Magic East, Selina still remains the number one most-watched show. On Showmax, where it’s available to binge from season one to the current season six, Selina has remained in the top 10 most-watched shows in Kenya for the past three years.

The secret to success

One of the things that have contributed to this impressive viewership is the fact that Selina runs daily. “This consistency is what audiences have been yearning for,” says Odanga. 

Of course, other factors come into play. Like the fact that Selina is an aspirational show that relates to audiences in the low-end markets while also appealing to those in the high-end. “It’s like making a show for people who live in Kangemi, but we don’t mind if those in Karen watch it too,” Odanga says.

Celestine Gachuhi on playing Selina for six seasons

Odanga and his team never anticipated the magnitude of Selina’s popularity. “None of us could tell how this story would pan out. I’d be lying if I said we had a plan or strategy to make it work,” he admits. “But we were clear that we just wanted to do a very good show, and everyone, from the cast to the crew, bought into the vision. We did a lot of research and pre-production work.”

Being a new concept, the first season, which had only 60 episodes (compared to later seasons with 260 episodes), had a lot of challenges. “But even then, if you look at those challenges within the industry and what other people were doing, we were still way above average. And so, when the show premiered, it just took off because it was different. We tried a lot of things because it kept growing; it was way beyond what we’d imagined.”

One cannot talk about Selina’s success without acknowledging the role that social media played in getting it to the top. As the show became more popular, it garnered a loyal social media fan base not only in Kenya but also in Rwanda, Tanzania and Uganda. These fans changed how viewers interact with local content on social media.

On being the first

To put this into perspective, according to Odanga, Selina was the first Kenyan show to host a Facebook live chat with the cast, and also the first to have numerous fan pages (the show currently has over ten fan pages with over 500,000 cumulative followers on Facebook alone).

Pascal Tokodi on Selina’s legacy

“Some episodes have garnered over 2000 comments immediately after they aired,” says Odanga. “It’s very encouraging to see how audiences relate to it. And in this day and age of social media, people are able to give feedback immediately.”

But social media is a double-edged sword, and Selina has had its fair share of criticisms or “very down moments” as Odanga puts it. For a show with as many episodes as Selina, criticism is inevitable, especially in Kenya where this concept (numerous episodes) is new, Odanga explains. “We are now at 800 episodes. Our audience has never interacted with this kind of programming before.”

It’s easy to see how the audience would find this challenging but Odanga doesn’t see this style of storytelling fading in the near future.

“Many shows that are coming after Selina will be like 1000 or 1500 episodes. I think that’s where TV is headed. Shows like Pete and Kina are pretty much heading in the same direction, which is a good thing for the industry,” Odanga says.

For now, Odanga and his team face the challenges as they come, even as he shoulders the biggest burden – that he has to create a template for every other person who comes after him. “I think I can write a book now, ‘How to Produce a High-end Telenovela’ that includes what works, what doesn’t work, what the audience wants to see, what they don’t. For a long time, creatives have been writing for themselves, but with Selina, I’ve learnt to write for the audience.”

All episodes of Selina S1-6 are available on Showmax.