Musician Cinderella Sanyu, popularly known as Cindy, has urged filmmakers to focus on building strong personal brands around actors and other industry players if Uganda’s film industry is to grow.
Cindy, who ventured into the film industry after being inspired by her husband, Prynce Okuyo, says she has drawn lessons from her experience in music as she builds her career in film.
According to Cindy, one of the major challenges facing the film industry is that audiences often remember movies but fail to connect with the individuals who feature in them.
“I think we need to create personalities because in the film industry, we mainly know the movies which come and go. We don’t know the individuals who feature in them,” she said during a discussion with a local television station.
Cindy believes filmmakers can borrow a leaf from the music industry, where artistes have deliberately built personal brands that attract audiences even before releasing new music.
“I think in movies we have a task of creating names and brands so that people get to know them because sometimes people fall in love with individual characters in film and not the whole project,” she said.
She added that the music industry has mastered the art of promoting artistes as individuals, something she believes the film industry should also embrace.
“We mastered that art in music, whereby an artist sells himself before the music. I think in the film industry, when we sell ourselves as individuals to the people, then the industry will elevate,” Cindy added.