Local film producer is changing the industry

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     Film & Theatre

A local film producer is making a name for himself in the very competitive entertainment industry with his genre of realistic movies.

Vuledzani Munyai is a resident of Dididi Tshitomboni. He already has several movie titles under his belt, such as Tshiitamune (Your life – your choice), Twisted (Life is a Choice), and Naho.

His “career” in the entertainment industry started at primary school when he recited the classical poem All Things Bright and Beautiful with the agility and perfection of a professional performance poet to the delight of his English educator, Mr Kenny Mathabi.

“Mmh – I loved this poem,” he said. “It brought me to the crowd. Poetry made me famous in and around my village and I was respected by many. I was young then, but was full of confidence, full of zeal and full of energy.”

In 1996, Munyai passed matric. “Because there was no money at home for me to go to the university, I decided to initiate youth activities to keep myself and the rest like me busy. That worked. First, I established a martial arts club, then a modelling club, an acting club, a dancing club and a hands-clapping choir, etc. These projects were run not only in my village, but also in the neighbouring villages,” he explains.

Munyai also secured a small role in Phala Phala FM’s radio dramas. “In 2001, I left the radio and began to follow my dream on television,” he said. “I had a story which I wrote then and this was the same story that made it possible for me to meet some of the acting legends such as Sello Maake. Maake wrote me a very inspiring letter while he was still in Generations. I still have that letter.”

Shadrack Mphaphuli then helped him to become a professional scriptwriter. “We did a music video together for an album entitled Nyimbo dza lufuno,” he says. “After that, I did a movie with Asivhanzhi of Asi-B Films, called Walk Like A Man. All those projects were preparing me for my destiny.”

In 2007, he Vuledzani was offered a job as presenter for a TV show called Tswellopele that was on SABC 2. “With all my TV and scriptwriting experiences, I did my solo project for TV, titled The Brave,” he said.

Today, his movies (Tshiitamune, Twisted, and Naho) have been aired on Soweto TV and Mzansi Magic. “Twisted is a story focused on HIV/Aids and also addresses some social problems that people, especially the youth, experience,” he said. “Tshiitamune focuses on the issues of drug and alcohol abuse.”

The film, Naho, is about a woman who has sold her soul to the devil, hoping to get rich and famous. “Things didn’t work out the way she planned and now she is hunted by her own demons, forcing her to do the unthinkable,” Munyai explains.

Despite financial challenges, Vule Media Group (Pty) Ltd continues to unearth new talent and provide life-changing opportunities to the rural youth.

Munyai is on Facebook and can be contacted on [email protected] or 0795409080.

By: Tshifhiwa Mukwevho

Tshifhiwa Given Mukwevho was born in 1984 in Madombidzha village, not far from Louis Trichardt in the Limpopo Province. After submitting articles for roughly a year for Limpopo Mirror's youth supplement, Makoya, he started writing for the main newspaper. He is a prolific writer who published his first book, titled A Traumatic Revenge in 2011. It focusses on life on the street and how to survive amidst poverty. His second book titled The Violent Gestures of Life was published in 2014.