A Chinese TV series titled Hunting shot in Nairobi has earned 250 million viewers in China.
Hunting was shot in suburban neighbourhoods of Nairobi dotted by a tropical forest. It features a renowned Kenyan actor Derrick Assetto.
Assetto was the lead actor in the film.
When a two-minute teaser of the Chinese investigative series was first shared last week, it created a buzz online.
Hunting features renowned Chinese actors; Angel Wang, Wang Kai, Liu Yijun, and Deng Jiajia.
The big names in the Chinese industry have seen viewership numbers shore up to 250 million going by data released by BTV1, Dragon Television Chinese network.
The series depicts a situation where Chinese fugitives escape their motherland after committing crimes and escape in a bid to run away from judicial prosecution in China.
Jim Shamoon, the managing director, Blue Sky Films which shot the film in Kenya told the Standard that they have been involved in shooting huge projects in Kenya.
Shamoon said that the Chinese Embassy in Kenya was of great support in helping his firm obtain necessary licenses given there were real guns, explosives and Kenyan police officers roped into Hunting.
“We have been filming many international films with big stars such as Angelina Jolie both in Kenya and across the world and out of this good network, the Chinese company behind Hunting approached us for the Kenyan shoot sometime in 2019.
“The team was extremely professional and even had the support of the Chinese Embassy in Kenya. They had a cast of very experienced actors too, and this made the project easy to handle,” he explained.
One of the locations Hunting featured in Nairobi was Ngong Road and Kona Baridi where there were fierce, stage-managed gun shooting and use of explosives.
The budget of the film was slightly above Ksh100 million, Shamoon revealed. The fil was financed by China’s Ministry of Public.
The first season of the series was shot for 59 days in Kenya while the rest was filmed in the Czech Republic. Hunting broken the records in becoming China’s most viewed crime series.
Assetto termed his experience playing the lead role in the 44-episode series as good.
