Image: Instagram
Abel Mutua quit The Real Househelps of Kawangware (TRHK) after the production house refused to add their logo, PhilIt Productions, at the end of every episode.
His thinking was they needed to put their (Abel and Phillip) name out there and furthermore, the two were literally the brains behind the show as writer and director respectively. So because they did not come to an agreement with the company, they quit that job in as much as they had nothing planned to fall back on.
In his YouTube channel, he opened up to his wakurugenzi's saying that right after they left, Njugush realized they are no longer part of left TRHK and he quit too. Please note he was the main character and Abel and Phillip had no idea where they were going next.
Image: Instagram
So they decided to shoot a pilot so that they sell it to various media houses hoping someone will buy it.
"Do I have the money to shoot a pilot? No! I used all my savings at the grand white wedding. To save the day, one Catherine Kamau aka, Kate Actress came and said she understands and sees our dream then asked how much we needed to shoot the pilot. We estimated, calculated and came to ksh200,000. She contributed the large chunk of the money, 150k and Phillip and I hustled and got the remaining 50k and there we have it, a pilot." Abel narrated
In response to this, Kate said she saw a husband in Phillip and so helping them out was not such a stretch for her.
In as much they had the pilot, they were missing a business-minded kind of guy.
"Now at PhiIt we had the creatives but did not have a business skilled guy. Where we worked before, there was a certain guy who knew how to get sponsors and so we thought we needed him but how do we get him.
Our stars aligned. One day as he was living work after 36 hours of nonstop working, he collapsed on Waiyaki Way due to fatigue and that was his wake up call. So we got the news he resigned and called him for lunch pitched our idea and told him we will not even pay him a salary, he will have some shares in the company and bam! We had our finance guy. Now PhilIt was complete." Abel added
Image: Instagram
The pilot they shot, Sue na Johnny was not picked by any local media house and it was tough to a point Abel decided he will go back into employment because he had nothing and was struggling to pay bills including rent arrears. Also, note he had promised never to be employed again but circumstances could not allow him to keep that promise.
Just before he reported under KJ to work at his agency, Phillip got a call from Maisha Magic East and that was when the door opened for them all. After months of serious brokenness that was so bad, their wives; Judy, Kate and Izzareh had to take care of the men, there was light at the end of the dark tunnel.
Now they - PhilIt - is a household name in most of the top-notch local productions in Kenya. The moral of the story, don't give up, try all avenues possible, there is always a way out and a lesson to learn.
