A couple of weeks ago the home of Africa’s telenovelas, Telemundo launched its latest telenovela The Scents of Passion (Café con Aroma de Mujer). A modern remake of an original story told over 30 years ago yet is still very much relevant in today’s contemporary society. BusinessDay got a chance to speak with the series’ producer, Yalile Giovanelli who shared her thoughts about the show and why she’s especially excited that Nigerians can watch the show, which airs on DSTV Channel 118 at 9PM WAT.
Here’s is what Yalile had to say.
How would you describe The Scent of Passion to Nigerians?
The Scent of Passion is a story about two love birds, Gaviota a coffee farmer and Sebastian the owner of a coffee farm which he has inherited from his father. They meet and fall in love despite all their differences. They find that they complement each other and are brought even closer together by their shared dreams and love for coffee.
How did you get into producing this telenovela series?
I worked with Fernando Gaitán, who wrote the original story, for almost eight years. I had also previously worked with RCN, the producers of The Scent of Passion, for a while. Also, I have sensibility for the farm, for the universe, and for humanity, so when they reached out to me, I was very honored. The series is a story about women solidarity and has music. So, it has a lot of themes that got me interested.
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And is telenovela your favorite thing to watch as well as produce?
I watch different genres, but I love telenovelas and romance and I have produced some serious ones. What interests me is the theme and the context. We are all part of the universe, we all have differences and are separated based on these differences yet despite societal differences, we share common values as human beings without knowing each other.
What reaction do you predict from Nigerian Telemundo fans?
I hope that they love the stories as we all love it in Latin America, in Spain. I also I hope they love the story as much as we enjoyed making it.
What is your favorite project that you have ever worked on in your career?
That’s a difficult question to answer because I love all the projects, I’ve been fortunate enough to work on, but I think The Scent of Passion is a very important project.
Do you have any favorite memories from your time producing The Scent of Passion?
I think we enjoyed a lot of the time spent in the coffee farm, where we were shooting. We lived there together with the extras who were working on the coffee farm.
Do you have any other projects you’re working on that you can tell us about?
Now I’m working on another remake, a comedy from Fernando Gaitán. It is about sales, so it’s an interesting world.
Telemundo’s ‘The Scent of Passion’ recently premiered in Nigeria and is showing on the Telemundo channel 118 on DStv every day at 9PM WAT.
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