EXCLUSIVE: Serah Ndanu on Her New Production Company and Debut Project ‘Bus 338’ – A Survival Thriller Born Out of COVID-19

At the height of COVID-19, Serah Ndanu was in London visiting her then boyfriend – now husband – footballer Victor Wanyama when the idea for her new film Bus 338 began to take shape in the confines of a global lockdown and the mental strain that came with it.

“I was struggling mentally and writing has always been a form of letting it out and staying sane,” she says. The project was born from a simple idea but powerful question: what happens when ordinary people are pushed into extraordinary circumstances?

“I wanted to explore survival, fear, and humanity but in a way that feels Kenyan and is grounded in our reality. The story takes a familiar setting: a long-distance bus ride that turns it into a high-stakes survival journey. It’s relatable, but also cinematic,” Ndanu says.

With Bus 338, a survival thriller, Ndanu joins a growing wave of Kenyan filmmakers experimenting with ambitious genre cinema in an industry still dominated by dramas and comedies. This wave spans veterans like Likarion Wainaina, whose 2024 Showmax sci-fi series Subterranea broke new ground for Kenyan TV and Judy Kibinge, returning to directing after a decade with the supernatural folk-thriller Goat.

It also includes a younger generation of storytellers, from the Swiss-Kenyan filmmaker Damien Hauser making waves internationally with his Afrofuturist Memory of Princess Mumbi, which premiered at Venice, TIFF, and is now heading to BFI London in October; to local voices like Trevor Sagide who’s creating a niche as a young Kenyan filmmaker fully committed to genre filmmaking with his short films, and Allan Bosire whose upcoming Halloween short Hollow confronts the psychological aftermath of a young woman’s miscarriage.

For Ndanu, this is just the beginning, the first of many “bold” ideas, as she calls it, that will be produced under her new production company SNT Productions, launched at the beginning of September.

Ndanu’s decade-long acting career has included projects that endeared her to Kenyan viewers, from Dorothy Ghettuba’s 2013 Swahili drama Sumu la Penzi to her last TV appearance as end-of-the-spectrum twins in the Showmax series Igiza, a double turn that Sinema Focus critic Churchill Osimbo praised as an “impressive feat.” But from the beginning, she always knew producing is where she wanted to end up, telling Kenyan and African stories with “scale, nuance and ownership.”

“Founding SNT Productions was about creating a home where these stories could live and ensuring that the people behind them, both in front of and behind the camera, have their work valued,” she says.

Drawn from her initials, Serah Ndanu Teshna, SNT is a passion project five years in the making that she’s quietly been building behind the scenes. She describes it as a journey of patience, resilience and vision, one that’s both rewarding and challenging. “I’ve been laying the foundation, learning the business side of film, building networks, and investing in development.”

The production company is Ndanu’s personal venture but it’s not lost on her how women’s success is often framed through the men in their lives. In her case, former Tottenham Hotspur and Southampton player Victor Wanyama. “I honestly can’t wait for the day women will be celebrated for their accomplishments without being questioned ‘how’, ‘who did it for you’ or ‘show us proof’ of how you got here,” she says.

From the beginning, she invested her own resources into SNT and Bus 338, and built the right team to grow the business. It’s a risk she was willing to take. “I cannot say this was a million-dollar project, but (it meant) parting with a chunk of money that I might not make back. But I’m content with it because it went towards something I’m passionate about.”

Even though she’s built the business herself, Wanyama’s support has been vital. “My husband has been incredibly supportive, cheering me on every step of the way,” says Ndanu. “Having a partner who believes in your dreams makes all the difference, but this is very much my lane.”

Raising two children while working between Kenya and the UK, her family grounds her and her career fuels her. She wears many hats as “any working mother,” she says. “Both give me purpose in different ways. I’ve learned to prioritize, to delegate when I need to, and to embrace the fact that women can thrive both at home and in boardrooms, or in my case, on set.”

Ndanu’s years in acting have shaped her perspective and a greater appreciation for how powerful and collaborative storytelling is as she steers SNT it into the future. “As an actress, you focus on embodying a character,” she says. “But as a producer, you’re holding the bigger picture: the vision, the logistics, the people and the legacy.”

For an actress who’s been away from the screen since her move to the UK, timing is everything for her, and the launch of SNT feels like the right moment. This is her chance to step back into a space that is alive with opportunity as more and more African stories find their place on the global stage. “I believe Kenyan and African cinema is at a tipping point,” she says. “The world is hungry for authentic stories from our continent.”

We’re not here to do “small African films”, she declares of SNT’s vision. “We’re here to create cinema that competes on the world stage.”

Launching with Bus 338 was a deliberate choice. Ndanu calls it more than a film, a statement of intent. “Kenya doesn’t have to be boxed into one type of storytelling. I want to expand what people imagine when they think of Kenyan cinema,” she says. “Thrillers travel and connect with audiences everywhere because fear and survival are universal emotions.”

Beyond its grand ambitions, Bus 338 is deeply personal for Ndanu. The story honours her late mother and is a tribute to her older sister Mwende – a medical practitioner in the US – whom she gets to play in the film. “

“As you can tell, it’s a huge responsibility that represents courage: the courage to start something new, to be vulnerable, to tell a story that hasn’t been told before in Kenya, and to do it at a world-class standard,” she says.

At its core, Ndanu says, this is also a story that honours the people who constantly put their lives on the line, the children who come from broken homes, the people who genuinely struggle to make ends meet day to day, those in broken marriages, and those struggling with mental health.

As she takes on the producing role for the first time, Bus 338 also marks her return to the screen since Igiza in 2022. Her co-stars include Bilal Mwaura (40 Sticks), Robert Agengo (Country Queen), Pascal Tokodi (Makosa ni Yangu) and Godfrey Odhiambo (Crime and Justice) whom she describes as “an authentic and powerful ensemble.” She says of the casting process: “It wasn’t just about big names; it was about who could embody the characters in a way that makes the audience believe every second. It’s not often that a cast completely takes ownership of their roles, eager to learn, to question and to contribute their creativity to make this film a success.”

Tanzanian filmmaker Angela Ruhinda, known for Binti (Tanzania’s first project on Netflix) and Showmax’s comedy drama Big Girl Small World, penned the script for Bus 338. “When I was first introduced to Angela, we immediately connected,” says Ndanu. “She understood the kind of story I wanted to tell. She understood the tone, the thought process and how the actors connected with each other.”

Ndanu and Ruhinda worked together to refine the script until it “made so much sense.” “By the third draft, I was confident enough to approach the director with something solid that would lure him to come on board,” Ndanu says.

That director was Isaya Evans, whom Ndanu had worked with on Igiza, where he was casting director and also helmed some episodes. “Isaya is a talented director,” she says. “It was amazing bouncing off ideas and exploring how we could stamp Bus 338 as a global hit. We shot in Kenya, capturing the rawness and beauty of the landscapes that make the story feel real.”

The film will premiere in Kenya at a date that hasn’t been locked yet but is firmly within 2025’s release window.

“Kenya is home, and our audiences deserve to be the first to experience this story on the big screen,” says Ndanu. “Beyond that, we’re also positioning Bus 338 for the international festivals, diaspora audiences and global distributors.”

One of those diaspora audiences is the UK where Ndanu currently resides with Wanyama and their two children. “London will be one of our key markets. There’s a vibrant African diaspora here that’s hungry for stories from home, and UK audiences are increasingly open to global cinema. We see London as both a celebration space and a launchpad for wider international visibility,” she says.

In fact, with SNT, Ndanu is thinking broader and long-term, nurturing collaborations between Kenya’s creative space and the UK. It’s one of her biggest goals, she says. “There is immense untapped talent in Kenya and across Africa, and the UK has more reach and infrastructure. Bringing those two worlds together creates endless possibilities for film, television, and even cross-cultural exchange.”

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