‘Michael’ boom as Kenya’s film industry seeks boost

That same Saturday, the Kalasha Film Festival was coming to a close at the KICC with the Kalasha Awards’ gala and dinner that was presided over by President William Ruto, resplendent in a top hat and suit reminiscent of Charlie Chaplin – and who promptly offered Sh300,000 top up to the Sh200,000 prizes on offer (the full list of the award winners is provided at the bottom of the article).

Veteran thespian John Karanja, who won the Lifetime Achievement Award, his first ever artistic recognition, had an impassioned plea for the president: “Please pump in money into the film industry, and it could be a cultural earner for Kenya.”

The figure that Mr. Karanja had in mind was Sh1 billion, which the State could well afford if it had the will for real reel, and President Ruto was quick to “(I) promise Sh10 million for scripts and films about the success of the Affordable Housing Program … as well as SHA (Social Health Authority) before 2027.”

Just stop to consider the implications of a hundred well-made films and documentaries from Sh10 million merit grants each from the government – and we can go back to “Michael,” the biopic movie, as our model for the ideal film.

Thinking inside the Box (office) was that ‘Michael,’ the movie, might not break even for a while, to cover the whopping $200 million budget it cost to make.

John Logan, the renown screenplay writer (also Gladiator, Any Given Sunday, Hugo, The Last Samurai, The Aviator) got two million dollars for the script rewrites.

On its opening weekend alone, it brought in $220 million worldwide – a ten percent profit to get on its feet. And ‘Michael’ looks set to roar to a billion bucks.
And why not?

If you are male and your name is John, Joseph, James, Peter, David, Charles, Richard, Thomas, MICHAEL, or lately, Liam, you have a worldwide top ten common name.

Yet for almost 30 odd years, from say 1982 until his death in mid-2009, if you just said “Michael,” there was only ONE ‘Michael’ you could possibly be talking about.
Michael Jackson!

In the same way “Ali” is a very common Muslim name, but if I say “Ali,” who comes to mind? Muhammad Ali, the boxer, is who you just thought of, right?

Michael Jackson was the greatest pop star of the 20th century who ever existed, his “Thriller” album is the best-selling album of all time, moving 65 million copies to date; the man himself moved 750 million records, becoming an icon in his lifetime, albeit an eccentric even freaky figure at times, and an immortal in death.

Yet before the legend, there was the boy – born in 1958 in Indiana to a poor black steel worker with many mouths to feed – but in those mouths, especially those of his five sons – Joe Jackson also saw mouths that could feed him; and the auto-worker ruthlessly set about literally (panel) beating the Jackson quintet into the boy band that would blow up as the Jackson Five.

In the movie, Joe Jackson is fearsomely played by Colman Domingo in a way that brings out the patriarch’s meanness and demanding nature that would give us the global genius called Michael, but also rob him of childhood and turn the man into a boy-child ‘Peter Pan.’

Juliano Valde as young Michael is heart-achingly performative, and getting Michael’s real (look alike) nephew Jaafar Jackson to play his late uncle in the movie was an inspired choice – something that Jaafar pulls off with aplomb.

The film follows the Jackson Five’s rise to the top of the pops, before Michael manages, with the help of legendary producer Quincy Jones, to break away and pursue the solo career that would lead him to super stardom – the likes of which the world has never seen since (step aside, Taylor Swift) – but that would also cost him everything in the end.

The scope of ‘Michael’ only covers the first 30 years of his life until his “Bad” tour in 1988 – but, oh, the music, that beautiful music that MJ created, that makes one want to dance on their seat in the theatre; or do a moonwalk slide across the screen.

“I Wanna be starting something” that kicked off MJ’s solo career and “Don’t Stop till You Get Enough” that expressed the scale of his musical ambitions that were fully realized with the “Thriller” single, then the video of it that made MTV forever

The poignancy of “Human Nature” with those wistful lines “looking out, across the night-time, the city winks her sleepless eye …”

We see Michael gathering and training the real-life gang members for his “Beat It” video, share in the joy of “Billie Jean” before the climatic scenes of “BAD” on tour.

A year before that in 1987, MJ was scheduled to come to Nairobi as part of the Jackson Five’s farewell tour during the All-Africa Games, but the promoter disappeared with the money, so that it is just Jermaine Jackson – Jaafar’s father – who showed up. (MJ did visit five years later, but as part of his philanthropy activities, not as a performer, in a charity tour that also took him to Tanzania, Gabon and the Ivory Coast).

Only sixty movies have ever made a billion dollars or more, and for producer Graham King whose 2018 ‘Bohemian Rhapsody’ musical bio-pic (about rocker Freddie Mercury) eventually made $ 911 million at the Box Office, this movie about the ‘King of Pop’ looks set to score a billion bucks and join that rare club – making four dollars in return for every dollar it cost Lionsgate to make.

“Michael” alone will make at least Sh130 billion, when its Box Office run is done.

By contrast, Kenya’s total annual film industry output is estimated to be about Sh16 billion. It employs about 40,000 Kenyans, contributes just 0.4% to the national GDP and the government invested just Sh670 million into our film development – and that is not direct investment.

This 14th Kalasha International Film & TV Awards 2026, held in Nairobi, saw Nawi: Dear Future Me and Sukari dominate the film categories, while Kash Money dominated television. Key winners included Michelle Lemuya (Lead Actress, Nawi), Juma Mdoe (Lead Actor, Sukari), and Lifetime Achievement awardee John Karanja.

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