Melvin Alusa was relaxing at home one day last year when a friend called about an audition he thought would be of interest to the 40-year-old actor.

It was for an action movie.

“I told him that I didn’t want to do that because our reputation as an industry for doing action movies hasn’t been that good. But he insisted, telling me the producer was asking for me. He pushed me from my house, and I left for the auditions,” Alusa says.

He auditioned like every other actor who showed up and did not make much of it, says the actor, who has been in a number of movies, such as The Boy Who Harnessed the Wind, The First Grader, Lusala, Country Queen, and the series Makutano Junction.

After the auditions, someone told him that it was a movie about the military, which got him interested.

The major surprise came when he was called back by the casting manager and told while he auditioned for the supporting role, he was going to be the lead character in the movie.

“One thing led to the other,” he says.

In ‘Mission to Rescue’, currently exclusively available on Baze, the video-on-demand platform backed by Safaricom, Alusa plays Captain Baraza, the leader of an elite command group within the Kenya Army.

The movie’s story revolves around radicalisation of the youth and the fight against terrorists, which has gained prominence in Kenya since the start of the last decade with the rise of Al Shabaab in Somalia.

Captain Baraza and his Special Forces troops are suddenly called into action when an Assistant County Commissioner is abducted by the Al Shabaab and they happen to be closest as they are training.

As he leads the troops, his concern is not only the fight with the terrorists: he must handle his own physical and mental challenges.

His physical and psychological preparedness is necessary as he faces not only the terrorists but the vital question on whom he can trust and who is the real enemy, a scenario that plays out in the theatre of an asymmetrical war. Shooting a military movie as a civilian meant the crew had a lot of learning to do – such as how the defence forces work, the lingo, to the ammunition and the range of firearms – behind the screen in order to bring their characters to life on-screen.

The military consultant on site worked with the crew throughout the 46 days of shooting in Samburu and Nairobi. Getting into military mode also meant waking up at 5am to run and exercise to get into physical shape.

Alusa was part of a crew of 10 people, with a main cast of three – him, Abdi Yusuf and Warsame Res and a supporting cast of about 12.

The movie was produced by Kara Loice Wambui, who has been in the business of making films for 10 years, with a focus on entertaining and educating the public.

It was directed by Gilbert Lukalia, who has worked in film, TV and theatre and directed the award-winning film Strength of a Woman and the Africa Magic original films and TV series Adema and Pray and Prey.

For Alusa, the training involved getting into a new mode.

“It was just getting yourself into being a soldier (a commando). The training was not a joke, but I enjoyed because it was shooting and getting all things right. That was cool, plus the physicality of a soldier,” he says.

“We shot that movie in Samburu, but I didn’t know what was in store. We got on location and found out that it was a nice place in the middle of nowhere but with all supporting systems and scenery needed for the film,” he remembers.

As they wrapped up shooting and moved to the editing and eventual release, Alusa was privately concerned about how the movie would get on screen.

Advances in technology, such as the advent of DVDs and internet streaming, mean that a movie is more likely to be viewed on a small, private screen at home than on the big screen at a cinema hall.

While there has been a shift to the distribution of films through video on demand sites, there has been a small number of Kenyan players and lengthy and expensive processes to get Kenyan material on platforms backed by multinationals.

“We were still worried about how the movie would be distributed because Kenya has never hacked distribution,” he recalls.

He attributes what happened next, especially the timing, to God.

“Safaricom was planning to launch their amazing platform for Kenyan content, we had amazing content, and Safaricom saw the movie and it was a perfect match. It was an amazing quality product that is on time, and this is an amazing platform. Baze has cracked the distribution quagmire that has been facing the film industry in Kenya,” says Alusa.

Among the main attractions for Baze is the revenue share between the content creators and the company, which has been set at 60/40. For many of them, it means they can make money.

The movie is available exclusively on Baze for three months before it can be accessed on any other platform.

Alusa rates the 93-minute movie as one of the best productions in which he has played a part over the 15 years he has been a professional actor. Don’t take his word for it, check it out yourself here.

You can access the Baze platform at www.baze.co.ke or by dialing *544*55#. The service offers customers the freedom to choose from two subscription plans; an all-day pass at Ksh10 and an all-day pass with 200MB data at Ksh20.