The long awaited grand premiere of Indo-Uganda movie finally happened on Friday at Victoria Hall, Kampala Serena Hotel.
The movie Luzira; Escape From Uganda. Producer Girisch Nair thanked Ugandans and Indians for working together to out the movie. The $1m movie is now showing worldwide in Cinemas.
Several Ugandan high profile personalities, actors, actresses and entertainers attended the premiere that had glitz, fashion and glamour. Among those are Jennifer Musisi Chief Executive Officer Kampala, Jose Chameleone, Sam Bagenda aka Bossa, Iryn Namubiru,Miss Uganda 2014 Leah, Flavia Tumusiime, Frank Gashumba, Michael Wawuyo and several other socialites and entertainers.
The movie
LUZIRA, is the story of a young middle class Indian family living in Kampala whose lives are turned upside down, when the wife Shika Samuels (played by Indian award winning actress Rima Kallingal) finds herself faced with the double murder charge of her close friend and the Mayor’s daughter, Audra (played by reigning Miss Uganda 1st Runner Up, Anita Kyarimpa). The film follows the extensive and daring efforts of Shika’s husband, Jay (played by Indian actor Vijaay Babu) to prove her innocence in the Ugandan courts.
The film stars a stellar cast of some of Uganda’s leading actors, Michael Wawuyo and Ebonies’ Sam Bagenda and also marks the debut acting performance of East African musician and performer, Jose Chameleone in a cameo role as a playboy and kingpin smuggler, Don Dada. Chameleone and diva sensation, Iryn Namubiru, also perform the songs in the movie creating a soundtrack that will be a surprise change of pace for their thousands of fans.
The film is a multi-billion shilling production, shot entirely in Uganda across 60 locations in Kampala, Jinja and Entebbe. RNMP flew in a team of 62 cast members, crew and technicians and 5 tons of equipment to shoot across a 2 month period late last year. “It will be difficult to replicate such a top quality, high budget, local African production for a long time to come, for exclusive consumption for the African market” said Mr. Girisch Nair, producer of the movie and also Chairman of RNMP.
He added “LUZIRA, can however become the game changer. Like any business, production budgets follow distribution and consumption revenue. Given the nascence of our industry, distribution is currently limited, despite the slow growth of the number of quality Cinema theatres or indeed the growing TV network base. The discerning consumer is driven to the pirated DVD to fulfil their appetite for high quality cinema entertainment.
LUZIRA is demonstratively a world-class, local production that will definitely connect with the local consumer and hopefully catalyze the local and regional industry. Distributors should take full advantage of this local production and draw consumers to their networks and Cinemas.”
