Reuben Odanga is a successful filmmaker and producer who runs Multan Production Limited. For years, he has produced captivating telenovelas, some of which have won awards and catapulted the careers of many actors in the country. They include: Saida, Nira and Nuru, Selina, Nafsi and Kiu.
Here is his story as told by WoK,
Background and interest in the arts
Coming from an artsy family, he developed a love for the arts at a young age. He also attended schools that nurtured his artistic talent. During the 1996 drama festivals, while he was still in primary school, he took part in the action and impressed the audience with his acting skills.
Later, he joined St. Peters Mumias Boys which was very big in arts. He was then poached by the Kakamega High School Principal who gave him a scholarship based on his acting skills. The principal had first spotted him at the 1996 drama festivals.
Reviving Daystar’s Drama and Working with Big Names
After high school, he joined Daystar University. He helped revive the drama club which was left in a dire situation after all the active participants graduated.
In an interview with the Daily Nation‘s Lifestyle, he said this pushed him away from acting and he started writing and directing. Some of the big names he worked with at the time in the Daystar Drama club include: Anne Kiguta, Eric Omondi, 2006 Tusker Project Fame winner, Valerie Kimani and gospel singer Mercy Masika.
Getting opportunities and making his own films
He then got the opportunity to join Afda, a South African private institution offering film, TV and business innovation courses but was not able to go.
Odanga got a call from an acquaintance who had been chosen to produce the show Wash & Set on NTV. He joined the team and would later purchase a camera with the money he had gotten from the an Harambee and the sale of his Safaricom Shares. The talented producer then began doing wedding photography and also two short films, Saida and Sssh.
Saida became a big success and within no time he turned it into a telenovela. He also worked to get his own IP, meaning he could re-sell the product as his own.
He resold it twice and although it wasn’t a lot of money, he made enough to get by and pay off his debts. He had accrued debts amounting to Kshh1.1 million during the shoot of Saida.
Actors Welfare
His biggest and most watched telenovela is Selena which ran from 2017 to 2022 and had six seasons. In the Daily Nation interview, it was revealed that the series made about Ksh300 million during the seasons it aired.
At the beginning, the lead actor was taking home Ksh120,00 but at the end the highest paid actor was making about Ksh280,000.
From this project, he learnt a lot. For example, how to earn a profit since he didn’t make any in the first three seasons. He learnt how to properly budget since the script was written in India and they didn’t know what it would entail. If it would cost extra to shoot.
He also learnt about actors’ welfare and insists that all crew in his production pay NHIF while he pays for them Wiba. This came about after the lead actor Kone passed away after getting involved in an accident in 2018.
It brought about a lot of chaos and he couldn’t help but wonder what would have happened had he died on set. He also employs the same welfare method in other productions.
