6 June 2008
With the budding film industry, movie stardom is on sale, and in most cases not to the highest bidder. Dorene Namanya finds out why movie directors ask hopefuls to pay.
The glitzy red carpet premieres, the expensive suits, gowns, jewellery and the over the top hair dos. It is all glam and dazzle when aspiring hotshot movie directors hit play on the Sony DVD player (yes, only the best) that signals the release of yet another 'made in Uganda' movie.
Behind these scenes, are hundreds of movie star hopefuls that might have been conned in the promise of a slice of 'ugawood' glamour.
In Hollywood, the infamous question is "who you sleep with to get up there," but in Uganda, it is, "whose hands do you grease?" There have been numerous incidents of grumbling from actors and actresses who feel they are being given a raw deal when they have to pay just to audition for a role, and even then, never get it.
These days, movie auditions average over 200 applicants; all who are looking for that quick ticket to fame and will do anything to get there. And movie directors know this. And they take advantage. Abu Kawenja for example charges Shs5,000 per audition.
He does not stop there. "A few weeks later, he will call for fresh auditions for the same movie and tell them (applicants) that they did not get what they were looking for in the first round of auditions and will ask them to pay again," reveals a highly placed source of the film industry in Uganda.
He is not alone. Cindy Magara director of the movie Fate, Roger Mugisha of Battle of The Souls and Mariam Ndagire of Down This Road I Walk are some of the movie makers that have charged actors for auditions, up to Shs10,000 each. Which means that a director could walk out of that audition with over Shs2million. Considering that directors want only six people out of the lot that contests, this is grossly unfair.
A source who chose not to be named, says that sometimes most of these roles have already been filled by the director's own people and the audition is just a façade and a promotional stunt, to get the movie in the limelight. So who takes the roles? A green never before heard of hopeful that paid to get her 15 seconds or the experienced actor whom the director knows by name?
Professional conmen have taken advantage and used this to infiltrate the business. Dixison Peter Mwiiru is one such that was recently apprehended by police trying to solicit money from girls he had seen at a movie audition.
"Dixison came masquerading as a hopeful to audition for the upcoming movie The Unforgettable Friend that had free casting auditions at Club Rouge," says Hannington Bugingo one of the directors.
"But he was up to much more. He copied phone numbers from the entry forms they had been given to fill, especially girls' numbers and when the auditions were finished, he called the girls the following day telling them that they had got the parts but that they had to pay Shs20,000 for registration fee."
Bugingo says that the conman's luck run out when one of the girls Dixison was trying to con called him and alerted him (Bugingo). And that is when we caught him in the act and took him to police. Dixison's case is currently being investigated by CPS under case number SD95/6/5/2008.
But Dixison's job is to con people out of money. He is after all a conman. And the director's job is to make the movie. So why do they charge for auditions?
Mariam Ndagire says that they ask people to pay because since there is no talent agency in Uganda, it is not easy to get experienced actors and actresses without hassle. "I have a panel of judges that I have to pay at the end of the day so the money has to come from somewhere," she adds. Shouldn't the money for such things come out of the movie budget?
Roger Mugisha agrees with Mariam. He goes on to say that charging money is a way to separate the wheat from the chaff. "It is a gate. Otherwise, everyone and their mothers will come for auditions. So this helps to regulate the number of people coming to audition."
For those that don't get the roles Mugisha says, their contacts are kept in the data bank and called upon as extras or they can be in a music video. "Who knows, we may need extras for maybe a scene at the beach or in a bar," choruses Ndagire. Must be fulfilling for someone who aspires and pays to have a shot at movie stardom to be cast as just another face at the beach or discothèque.
"We also pay the actors, so you will find that most of them recover the audition money back anyway," says Ndagire. Wrong. Many actors I talked to that have acted in some of these major movies claim that they have not been paid yet.
Mathew Nabwiso, who acted the lead role in Battle of The Souls, says that he has not yet been paid for the role. Unlike the other actors interviewed though, who are disgruntled about lack of pay, he says he understands that the movie has not yet reached its financial projections and he is contented to wait. Considering the movie came out over a year ago and is well past its prime, that is one very patient and understanding actor.
A member of the cast for the movie Fate directed by Cindy Magara revealed that she was never paid for her work on the movie despite the fact that it is showing on DStv's Africa Magic, and has shown on UBC over five times.
The movie is also now on DVD, which means that distributors have already forked out a large sum of money to get distributing rights. "What hurts the most is not that we have not been paid, but that we have not been communicated to.
I think as members of the cast, we deserve so much more. The least the directors could do would be to update us on the goings on, even if it is to say that the movie has not yet realised the economic potential," she said.
In Hollywood, actors get paid even before the movie premieres. What if it never makes the money? If acting is a profession, is it then not like going for a job interview and getting asked to pay for it.
Or like working for a company and not get paid because the marketing department did not do its job? Do they expect the actors to go peddle the film then, just so they can realise enough profit for them to get paid? Granted, Uganda is no Hollywood, but even a budding industry needs to treat its actors more decently.
The movie industry in Uganda is growing. As well it should. At the rate at which movie hopefuls are being fleeced of money with the promise of turning them into instant sensations, it would take a collapsed economy for the industry not to grow. It has gone from being an art into a business venture, with movie men and women milking the hopefuls, to sponsor their low budget films. It needs to stop.
There is currently no body, or association that is looking out for the rights of these actors, but it is an idea that is still in the making, championed by Mariam Ndagire and many others. With an expanding industry, the law, or the Media Council should come in and protect the plight of these starry eyed actors that will continue to be exploited by movie makers.
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