How Kenyan film producer Tonnie Kamau lost millions in the industry

 

Award-winning Kenyan producer Tonnie Kamau has poured his heart, soul, and over Sh30 million into training and producing films since founding Ovotox Limited in December 2018.

 His journey has been far from smooth, marked by crippling debt, public shaming, and creative frustration.

The 34-year-old season filmmaker has lost millions producing films.

"I face the debt nightmare everyday but is still have hope that one day my efforts and love for film will reward me. This is just a pain in as much I have made an over Kes 30 million investment in training and producing content since the inception of my company. I have created over 1000 of employment opportunities directly and indirectly and trained hundreds of upcoming filmmakers," he told this writer

The COVID-19 pandemic hit Tonnie Kamau’s training initiatives hard, forcing him to pivot towards creating content. One such project was the Teke series pilot trailer, a celebrated teaser in Kenya’s film industry.

However, the complete series never materialized due to funding challenges.

In 2022, Tonnie Kamau produced Sleep, a Kalasha-nominated feature film, which failed to deliver a return on investment. Frustrated but determined, he uploaded the film to YouTube to ensure it reached audiences.

The financial loss from this project led to lawsuits, asset auctioning, and social media debt shaming.

"This investment really hurt my business and since then things have never been the same. From online debt shaming, lawsuits to losing property and assets through Auctioning life was tough."

Despite the odds, Kamau has built an impressive portfolio including  'Sleep' feature film which is a Kalasha Awards nominee (2022), 'Holiday Fiancée' an M-Net Original (2023), 'What If' a Machakos Film Festival runner-up short film (2021),  and 'Ann & Dan'  which is a 12-episode relationship drama web series (2024).

Drawing inspiration from global figures like Donald Trump, who overcame massive debt, Tonnie Kamau remains optimistic: “I believe I can push through and emerge stronger.”

"This far I have learned tough lessons and I’m not giving up. Debt is part of business but its my wish the creative economy in Kenya gets more investors so that we are able to tell more stories and pass down the knowledge to the upcoming generations. Despite huge profiles we have industry players who are facing the same nightmare just that many are not ready to speak up, as for me I’m owning up because I’m and I’m a good student of history. I believe I can push through because worldwide figure like Donald Trump were once in debt to the tune of billions of dollars and they came out stronger and better."

by QUEEN SEREM