- Kara Mia program manager, Hazel F. Abonita, explained the story’s origins
- Kara Mia stars are optimistic toward the mixed publicity that they received from netizens
- Good or bad publicity is still publicity
Kara Mia‘s program manager, Hazel F. Abonita, explained the origins and inspiration for Kara Mia’s narrative weave.
During the presentation, she explained that Kara and Mia were born with the medical condition called Disprosopus or craniofacial duplication, a congenital defect where two siblings have two faces but share the same body.
The series added supernatural and folkloric elements by showing that Kara and Mia’s “father” is actually an engkanto named Iswal (played by Mike Tan).
Abonita stressed that “there’s an actual case in India wherein yung baby, although may Diposoprus condition siya, yung mukha niya, parehong nasa harap.
“Hindi siya nabuhay past infant age because of complications ng internal organs niya.”
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There were two reported cases of babies born with craniofacial duplication in India: one in 2008 and one in 2014.
“Yung sa U.K. naman, it’s an urban legend, si Edward Mordake. Yung story ni Edward is such that he committed suicide kasi pag tulog daw siya, yung Mia niya sa likod, bumubulong, may criminal mind. Tinuturan siya kung anong gagawin na masama, hindi niya kinaya. So basically, that was the inspiration.”
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For the superstition part, as represented by the engkanto Iswal, Abonita and Kara Mia‘s creative team took inspiration from a feature in Kapuso Mo, Jessica Soho aired in November 2018.
Abonita elaborated, “Si Iswal, binase namin loosely doon sa KMJS feature na mga nawawalang panty sa Guimaras. ‘Tapos nakita yung mga 80 plus na panty nakabaon sa lupa. That was the reason why we went to Panay, doon kami nagshoot ng pilot, kasi doon namin nilapit, ganun ang character ni Mike Tan dito. Pero hindi naman siya sleazy na engkanto, malaro lang siya, naughty. Plus siyempre, tayong mga Pilipino, naniniwala sa mga pamahiin, hindi ka pwede magtapon sa kung saan lalo’t hindi mo kabisado yung lugar. Huwag kang titingin ng diretso sa tao na hindi mo kilala.”
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She also said that the audience’s concerns about Kara and Mia’s lifestyle will be addressed in the story, like how they take a bath, or how they sleep.
“Yes, actually we compiled the FAQs, tapos as much as we could, ita-try namin siyang i-address within the story para alam nilang pinapakinggan namin ang mga televiewers.”
When Abonita was asked about the the viral memes and if she’s afraid that it might backfire on the show’s performance, she admitted that they were taking advantage of all the social media engagement.
“Actually, na-realize namin as producers na, whether it is a good or a bad reaction from the audience, it’s still better than nothing. So dun sa mga negative, as much as we could, we try to keep an open mind and iniisip namin paano sila sasagutin o bibigyan ng response na hindi naman namin sila ine-engage into an all-out fight. But the positive [comments], we take to help the program more.”
Some might think that these memes are planted and are actually planned by the program, but Abonita assured that people’s reactions to Kara Mia are organic.
“Sa awa ng Diyos, wala naman po, kasi even when we went to the regional areas, may mga masks sila na alam mong drinawing lang nila ng kamay, organic naman po yung reactions to the program.”
Kara Mia is expected to start airing this February 2019 in GMA’s Telebabad block. Also part of the TV series are Jak Roberto, Paul Salas, Carmina Villaroel, Glydel Mercado, John Estrada, Alicia Alonzo, and Gina Pareno.
Kara Mia stars are still optimistic about the attention that they have received from the netizens.
