In our quest to know more about Nigeria, last week I had the opportunity to do a short presentation on Nigerian Cinema. Nollywood, as it is generally known is the 2nd largest film industry in the world in terms of no. of films produced, second only to Bollywood and ahead of Hollywood. The one unique characteristic about Nollywood is contrary to general opinion about movie industry it is not a celluloid industry where movies are shown on big screen but rather a video industry. In the post below, I tried to put a short summary on it.
Nollywood is said to be a relative new industry with around 15-20 years of existence. Although the real history dates back to 1960s when the first films were produced and screened in Nigeria. This was the time when Nigeria got its independence, however the producers got really frustrated because of the high cost of production. Then came the era to Television between 1960s and 1980s. This was largely supported by Govt. as well and by mid of 80s all the states in Nigeria had their own Television Station.
The real breakthrough for Nollywood came in 1992 when Kenneth Nnebue made a movie called “Living in Bondage”. The movie had a bold storyline and had depictions of black magic. It also showed how some wealthier men in Nigeria are making money using unfair means. The central theme of the movie was the triumph of Good over Evil. These concepts resonated really well with Nigerians and brought them back to movie-watching. There are also stories that Kenneth had a lot of video-tapes left over from his previous assignment and used it to market the movie. Some other factors which shaped the industry during then were:
- There were a lot of street crimes during the 90s which kept both the cinema-goers from going to cinema halls as well as made it difficult for producers to make movies.
- Financing was always an issue.
- There were some restrictions on displaying of Foreign content on televisions.
The above factors led to producers making their own content and broadcasting on television. Later these content were copied on video-tapes and sold in the markets as well. Additionally, they were motivated by success of Kenneth and changed the face of industry.
Thus, Nollywood is often referred to as homegrown or grassroot industry which developed on its own without any Govt. or outside support. The movies produced are not screened on theaters but sold as VCDs and DVDs for as low as $3. In fact, by some assumptions there are around 57 million VCD and DVD players in Nigeria which is used to play these movies. On an average a movie sells around 50,000 copies and if the movie is hit the no. can go upto 3 times and more. Every year around 2000 movies are produced and released, meaning around 40-50 movies are released every week. The annual revenue for Nollywood is said to be somewhere around 400 million dollars. Again there are some people who say that the actual figure may be 3 times more.
Use of English instead of local languages also served to expand the market not just in Nigeria but also among other African nations and Nigeria diaspora spread across different parts of the Globe. Nigerians also excelled in doing much more from less. An average movie in Nigeria costs somewhere around $15000 and is produced in a week’s time. In fact Nigeria’s most prolific director who has made over 80 films in past 8 years brags that he can complete a movie in flat 3 days. Nigerians are also very good in adapting new technologies as soon as it becomes affordable. What started with VHS cameras have moved on to Digital and HD cameras. Almost all the movies in Nollywood are shot using digital technologies these days.
Franco Sacchi, an Italian filmmaker, made a documentary on Nigerian Cinema and presented the film “This is Nollywood” to the audience at TED in 2007.
Whether it is about watching the movies on big screen or idiot box, Nollywood gave a ray of hope to ordinary Nigerians. They could see and experience their dreams come true on the silver screen and revived the culture of movie going. This is an industry which proved that ultimately it is about storytelling. In the next blog I will try to summarize the themes around these movies and what are the challenges that they are facing after around 20 years of existence.
Disclaimer : The views expressed on the blog are mostly from what I read on the internet about Nollywood. I had no chance to experience Nollywood first hand.
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