MultiChoice
and Mnet, Africa’s largest producers and broadcasters of local
television content yesterday hosted over 200 local producers, content
developers and students to a one-day summit on Investing in East Africa local content industries to spur economic growth.
GOtv
Kenya General Manager, Simon Kariithi reiterated the commitment by DStv
and GOtv to invest in local productions. “MultiChoice is rooted in
countries where our customers live. That means we are proud of the
contribution we are making in our local communities. As a leading funder
of local productions in Kenya, we are proud to announce a half a
billion shillings investment in 14 original local shows to be produced
and broadcast in the year 2017-2018, and will air exclusively on Maisha
Magic East which is the only show in the country with 100% local
content,” said Simon.
Further
to the investment, Maisha Magic also flew in Bollywood top thespians
for a knowledge transfer session. The summit, which took place at Local
Production Limited studios in Nairobi, also featured two of Bollywood’s
renowned and award-winning producers Neelima Bajpal and Shyamashis
Bhattacharia, Directors at Shakuntalam Telefilms in India. The
Bollywood producers gave presentations that focused on the drivers of
success of the Indian Telenovela productions including budgeting for
Bollywood films, script writing and casting. Also featured was the
importance of post-production in film production.
Shyamashis
Bhattacharia, while speaking at the summit, acknowledged the role that
TV plays in growing the Bollywood film industry. He said, “TV
appearances are just as popular as Film appearances in India. However,
most revenue is generated from TV and not film as most advertising and
product placement happens on TV. Television gives film actors an
opportunity to make guest appearances to promote their films, and this
is the key that propels the Bollywood film industry as it gives the cast
members more popularity. This has worked in Hollywood and would also
work well with local Kenyan film productions.”
Neelima Bajpal also a Bollywood script writer said, “It takes
patience and a professional team to put together a good film.
Sometimes, Bollywood writers can go for up to 5 months without payment
from the broadcasters. This should not discourage producers as Indian
writers make more money than any other personnel involved in creating TV
content. This is an indication that film is still a multimillion dollar
business if done well.
Other
speakers at the event were Chris Foot, Chairman of the Kenya Film
Commission; Dorothy Ghettuba, CEO Spielworks Media; Timothy Okwaro,
M-Net Director East and Southern Africa channels; Mwaniki Mageria, CEO
Riverwood and Nkateko Mabaso, General Manager M-Net South Africa. Delegates also interacted and engaged on various topics including issues around driving local content uptake and innovation in the Kenyan film sector.
The
summit was organized in an effort to increase local production skills
following a directive by the Communication Authority in 2014 to increase
local content programming from 40% to 68% by 2018.
Apart
from the summit, delegates who attended the summit also had an
opportunity to tour the studio facilities. They also had a chance to see
the production of one of Maisha Magic East’s productions titled Jela 5 –Star set for launch on 3 July 2017. Two other music shows – The Turn Up and Pambio Live will also launch on 1 July 2017 and 2 July 2017
respectively. The three shows will be the first of the 14 shows lined
up to roll out in 2017 on Maisha Magic East. Maisha Magic East is on DStv Channel 158 and GOtv Channel 4.
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