'We never thought it would end up as a nominee at the Oscars'

The producer and director of the first ever Zulu film say that compared to Hollywood blockbusters like Harry Potter, the movie's collection 'isn't bad for a local film'.

South African director Darrell Roodt and producer Anant Singh admitted they were surprised by the success of their film Yesterday. "We made it in South Africa for South Africans but never thought it would end up as a nominee at the Oscars," Singh said at a press conference.

"Or that we would be attending Aids conferences and taking it to film festivals around the word," Roodt added.

The film that basically tells the courageous story of Yesterday, a young mother, who discovers she and her husband are infected with HIV but decides to stay alive to watch her daughter attend her first day at school.

The movie is set in contemporary South Africa, however its universal appeal in theme have made it a critical success and even managed to have a reasonable run at the South African box office.

"Compared to Hollywood blockbusters like the Harry Potters and Lord of the Rings that collect about 30 million rand, Yesterday's performance wasn't that great. It collected about 2 million rand [Dh1 million], which isn't that bad for a local film," Singh said of the first film to be ever be made in Zulu. For Roodt, who does not speak Zulu, but said he understands the language, directing the lead actress, Leleti Khumalo in her native language was a revelation.

"I've worked with her before but to see her perform in Zulu was fantastic and it's encouraged us to make more movies in indigenous languages and not English, though there's always a lot of pressure to do so," he said.

Khumalo, described by Singh as Africa's finest actress, said that she liked to work in movies that meant something to her, but added that it was increasingly difficult to find filmmakers and scripts that fit that description.

Another problem was that though Hollywood studios did make films on Africa, they preferred to take on established actors within their industry as opposed to actors from the region.

"It pained me so much to watch a film like Hotel Rwanda where I thought that Leleti could have easily done better than the lead actress but she was taken on in a much smaller role," Roodt said.

The three did not understand why this was a trend, but said that it could only be attributed to factors such as money and even raised the possibility that it could be because of racism.

"I don't know of a single black actor from anywhere other than America that's made a name in Hollywood," Singh said, "I don't know why, maybe racism, I don't know."