Nisha Kalema: A footballer that fell in love with stories

Since winning her second Best Actress accolade in the annual Uganda Film Festival held by the Uganda Communications Commission (UCC) in 2016, actress Nisha Kalema went off the scene.
And yet this was supposed to be the epitome of her fast rising career as an actress, she had been remarkable in The Tailor the previous year and had bagged her first award.
In The Tailor, Kalema had about 17 minutes on screen which she made count as a materialistic wife that abandons her husband and daughter after he is diagnosed with cancer.
But with Freedom in 2016, there was more to celebrate than being a lead actress, it was her debut film as a writer and had invested a lot of emotions in her character.
Freedom was well received, winning Best Actress for Kalema, Best Director for Richard Mulindwa and Best Feature film, among other accolades.

The fallout
However, the fallout between Kalema and the producers saw her lose her writing credit on the promotional posters and film’s DVD and theatre release.
“At that time, I was in talks with an international production company to write some works and they needed to know if I had written before,” she says, adding that she pleaded with the producers to give her the rightfully earned credit as a writer in vain.
But Kalema’s journey as an actress and later a writer is one she never anticipated, for instance, she says it was after a senior actor rejected a script that producers asked her to help out; “The actor felt that the script was shallow, he did not want his reputation down the gutter because of a bad writing job.”
Being a graduate of journalism from Buganda Royal Institute, the producers decided to put her good command of English language to use.
“I was asked to clean up the script because they had zeroed on that particular actor,” she says.
And just like that, she had fallen in love with writing for film;
“I started writing audition scripts for the production house that when the opportunity came to write the script for Freedom, I was more than ready,” she says.
Kalema was born in a big family; she has 11 brothers and as the only girl, she easily adapted to their ways.

Football dreams
“I started by supporting football while growing up and then I started playing.”
Football started defining her life as she later joined almost all the girls’ football teams in the schools she went to.
“I was highly inspired by Lionel Messi and I believed in becoming the Ugandan version.”
Kalema says her position on the pitch was a deep lying number six but one that moved and often went forward.
Yet, even when she enjoyed herself on the pitch, her mother did not want any of it.
“Mum hated football, she thought it was denying me a chance to be a girl.”
While in school, Kalema had been cast in a production as an extra. “My role was meant to appear on stage once, taking something to the lead, I later learnt my mum had paid a teacher to put me in that role because she wanted me to be involved in things ordinary girls do,” she says.

Complexion battles
Kalema never felt like she was being appreciated enough. She notes that much as she was bringing a lot to the table, “It remained frustrating that light skinned girls always got lead roles for doing only half of what you can do.”
She, therefore, was a supporting actress to people she was well aware she was better than but had a lighter complexion.
“I think the worst part was when one director said it in my face, and that person was not even paying me for that role,” she says, adding that it was after she was cast for The Tailor, that she noticed acting can actually pay.
“When I worked with Hassan Mageye on The Tailor, I was treated like a professional and this prompted me to pursue this as a career.”
For Kalema, Freedom was a passion project whose role she invested in, for instance, she lost weight, turned darker shaved off her hair. Sacrifices she says was never paid for. It was at this time that she started working on her latest production; Veronica’s Wish.

Veronica’s Wish
“This is a story about a woman, written by a woman and directed by a woman,” she says.
Kalema says she was mostly inspired to tell the story the way she told it because of losing her due credits from Freedom.
The film follows a couple faced with a health scare and in turn use their experience to try and save others.
The film boasts of actors like Fun Factory’s Simon Base Kalema, Second Chance’s villain Housen Mushema, media personality Malaika Nnyanzi and Kalema herself.
“Surprisingly, I could not afford any of my actors, but I was lucky when everyone of them read the script, they loved it and accepted to be part of the project even without asking about payments,” she says.
Initially, she had wanted to produce and direct Veronica’s Wish with seasoned actress and director Rehema Nanfuka as the lead actress.
However, Nanfuka insisted Kalema was in the best position to pull off the lead and that is how positions changed.
Even starring in the movie, Kalema will still direct it. She believes only a female director can do it justice.
“When you look at the local film industry, men have carried everything and if we let them write, edit, direct, they will stereotype us according to their understanding of a woman,” she says.

Kalema’s break
Much as Kalema’s big break was Galz About Town where she portrayed Clara the leader of a high end prostitution ring, in The Tailor that she cemented her position.
After that role, Kalema added titles like Jinxed, a short film, Ugandan Pallock, The Only Son, TV drama Yat Madit and Freedom.