Not Every Indian Film is Bollywood and Not Every Nigerian Movie is Nollywood

  

Not Every Indian Film is Bollywood and Not Every Nigerian Movie is Nollywood

Bollywood and Nollywood have been called the first and second largest film industries in the world for the production of the largest quantities of movies.

Bollywood is generally labelled as the Indian film industry. But it is not the overall representative of the film industry of India, because there is Tollywood, the popular Telugu film industry of Telugu language based in the states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana in southeast India. Bollywood, the Hindi language Cinema is based in the city of Mumbai (formerly Bombay).

Tollywood was first coined before Bollywood and has a filmmaking history of over 100 years since 1909 when the Father of Telugu Cinema, Raghupathi Venkaiah Naidu produced short films and showed them in different regions of South Asia and he built the first Indian-owned cinema halls in South India in 1921.

Tollywood is the second largest film industry in India by box-office revenue after Bollywood. And Tollywood films sold 233 million tickets in 2022, the highest among all Indian film industries. As of 2023, Andhra Pradesh has the highest number of movie screens in India.

The boisterous Telugu film industry has several Guinness World Records such as the Ramoji Film City, which holds the Guinness World Record as the largest film studio complex in the world.

The second highest grossing Indian film so far, is "Baahubali 2: The Conclusion", a 2017 Tollywood epic action film directed by S. S. Rajamouli following the current highest grossing Indian film "Dangal"  a 2016 Bollywood biographical sports drama film directed by Nitesh Tiwari and produced by Aamir Khan and Kiran Rao.

I have written on the significance of the difference between Bollywood and Tollywood before on my Nigerians Report Online on Blogger.

Like Bollywood, Nollywood has been termed as the sobriquet of the Nigerian film industry since the name was coined by The New York Times in 2002. But the name Kannywood for the Hausa language film industry based in Kano was coined in 1999 before the The New York Times discovered Nollywood and said "it is like Hollywood" with starry-eyed guerilla filmmakers making dozens of movies daily from bootstraps budgets. All the movies were shot straight to video from handheld VHS cameras and sold in VHS tapes on the streets and stalls of Lagos and Onitsha before distribution to other countries across the borders to start the first indie film industry in Africa. 

While Nollywood is largely based in the predominantly Christian

southern region of Nigeria, Kannywood is based in the predominantly Islamic northern region of Nigeria.

Adamu Halilu, the Father of Hausa language Cinema was the first Nigerian indigenous filmmaker with the documentaries, "It Pays to Care" (1955) and "Hausa Village" (1958) and later made the classic film, Shaihu Umar (1976), a story of African slavery based on the novel of the same name by Abubakar Tafawa Balewa, first Prime Minister of Nigeria.

The first Hausa language home video, "Tirmin Danya " was produced in 1990 in Kano.

 The National Film and Video Censorship Board, (NFVCB) Abuja, started recording and censoring video films in Nigeria from 1995, and a total of 1600 Hausa video films were officially documented between 1995 and 2005.

Majority of the foreign film critics, journalists and scholars who claimed to be experts ignored Kannywood in their reports, features and books on the Nigerian film industry.  Both Nigerian and foreign scholars have done comprehensive researches and published books on Kannywood. The most popular are Dr. Idi Adam; Dr. Abdulkareem Abdulrahman; Dr. Muhammad Muhsin Ibrahim;

Dr. Carmen McCain; Prof. Brian Larkin and Dr. Mahmoud Nourah Bamalli.

Queen of Nollywood, Genevieve Nnaji.

Joint Queen of Nollywood, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde 

Queen of Kannywood, Rahama Sadau.

Alpha Male Nollywood actor, Enyinna Nwigwe.

My NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series is the first publication that has celebrated the beautiful queens of Kannywood on the same pedestal as the beautiful queens of Nollywood in the second edition published in 2014 and distributed by Amazon, Barnes and Noble and other booksellers in hardcover version, paperback version and Amazon Kindle version.

Ike Ude's photo book, "Nollywood: Radical Beauty" ignored the stars of Kannywood. 

The big problem of Kannywood is being under the dictatorship of the Islamic religion with majority of the actors, actresses and filmmakers being Muslims.

They are monitored by the Islamic police of Kano State and the other Sharia states in northern Nigeria with several cases of the violations of their fundamental human rights even in their private lives. 

Nollywood Alpha Male actor Enyinna Nwigwe can hug and kiss the Queens of Nollywood, Genevieve Nnaji and Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde in a romantic movie, but he cannot even dare to hug and kiss Rahama Sadau, the Queen of Kannywood on screen without incurring the wrath of the Islamic watchdogs of Kannywood.

-By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
International Digital Post Network Limited,
King of Kings Books International,
Screen Outdoor Open Air Cinema (SOOAC)

Publisher/Editor,

NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series,

The first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry

https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima
https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelchimaeyerengozi
New Nigeria
www.pinterest.com/nigeriansreport

COMING SOON

The First Annual Bollywood To Nollywood Filmmaking Workshops

#bollywood

#tollywood

#india

#nollywood

#kannywood

#hollywood

#nigeria

#asia

#africa

#cinema

#movies

#films

#videos

#filmindustry

#entertainment

#books

#scholars

#newyorktimes

#hindi

#telugu

#christian

#islam

#christians

#muslims

#religion

#filmmakers

#filmmaking

#cinema

#lagos

#onitsha

#mumbai

#pradesh

ZENITH International Film Festival's Merchandise for Fashion and Lifestyle

Film festivals are established for the promotion of the film industry which includes film tourism and movie merchandise and so much more in show business.

I have written on the huge film tourism and movie merchandise industry which have been very successful from Hollywood to Bollywood generating billions of dollars. And I have completed my feasibility studies for film tourism and movie merchandise for Ñollywood and the Nigerian film industry. The articles were published on Indiewire and Shadow and ACT since 2016. The articles have also been published on my Nigerians Report Online with the feature on the best film locations in Nigeria having over 5, 000 pageviews so far.

ZENITH International Film Festival will generate revenues from international film acquisition and distribution; film tourism, movie merchandise and from the hotels and guest houses for the participants and tourists.

The following selections of the merchandise which I have designed will create jobs and boost the creative economy of Nigeria.

My duly incorporated International Digital Post Network Limited, one of the most valuable digital media companies in Nigeria has international partnerships with Vuulr and Cinewav of Singapore for global film acquisition and distribution and for cinemas. And has international news media partnerships with PR Newswire, APO Group and a pending partnership with one of the biggest and largest broadcasting companies in the world which will be of immense benefit to our ZENITH International Film Festival in the world.

 

The merchandise of the ZENITH International Film Festival will be distributed locally by distributors in Nigeria and globally by Amazon.

The first designs of the T-shirts are already available on Instagram and Selar made to order on premium fabrics with or without the name of ZENITH International Film Festival with the beautiful logo. The logo is the symbol of the brand of ZENITH International Film Festival.

Only the best is good enough for us.

- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,

The CEO,

International Digital Post Network Limited,

The Founder/President,

ZENITH International Film Festival

Lagos State Government To Build A Film City in Epe

What is a Film City? 

Film City means an integrated studio complex spread over a minimum of ten acres area that provides the physical facilities required for film making, including providing the flexibility to use the outdoor spaces for shooting purposes. It may be used as a popular tourist spot, recreation centre featuring many natural & artificial attractions including gardens, landscapes, amusement parks, statues, miniatures, streets, hotels, restaurants, Art Gallery, Museum, Hospital and shopping destinations. It may also include the development of peripheral infrastructure such as hotels, food & beverage establishments and retail areas including merchandise stalls to diversify the revenue composition;(xxxviii) “Food Processing Sector” means a sector comprising enterprises engaged in such manufacturing processes in which raw product of agriculture, animal husbandry or fisheries is transformed to make it edible for human consumption;(xxxix) “Gems & Jewellery Sector” means a sector comprising enterprises engaged in manufacturing of handmade or machine-made jewellery or other articles of gold, silver and other precious or base metal clad with precious metals or precious or semi-precious stones, or combinations of precious metal and precious or semi- precious stones or other materials;(xl) “Government” means Government of Rajasthan (xli) “Green Building Measures” means process or technology adopted to obtain green rating under Indian Green Building Council;(xlii) “Half-Way-Home” means the establishment registered with any Government Department for the purpose and having facilities of temporary stay for patients who have been discharged from a hospital but frequent consultancy of doctor is required for providing the patients with a safe shelter and rehabilitation;(xliii) “Handicraft Sector” means a sector comprising enterprises engaged in such manufacturing of items or products in which products are produced predominantly by hand with or without mechanical or electrical or other assistance and graced with visual appeal in the nature of ornamentation or in-lay work or some similar work lending it an element of artistic improvement. Such ornamentation must be of a substantial nature and not a mere pretence;(xliv) “Hilly Area” means an area which is notified as such by the State Government in the Finance Department by an order;(xlv) “Industrial Gases Sector” means a sector comprising enterprises engaged in manufacturing of gases for use in industries, excluding poisonous"

 https://www.lawinsider.com/dictionary/film-city#:~:text=City%C2%A0means,industries%2C%20excluding%20poisonous

The Governor of Lagos State, Mr. Babajide Sanwo-Olu has reiterated that the Lagos State government will build a large scale Africam film city of 100 hectares in Epe at the cost of US$100 million. He told the guests and the news media as he hosted the programme announcement for the 12th annual Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF) on Thursday, October 5, 2023 at the Lagos State House on the Marina. 

Ms. Chioma Ude, the Founder and Executive Director of AFRIFF commended the laudable visionary leadership of Governor Sanwo-Olu in the capacity development of Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry. 

Lagos is the capital of Nollywood and the entertainment industry in Nigeria, the biggest contributor to making Nollywood the largest film industry in Africa and among the fastest growing film industries in the world.

A report from PwC projects that the fast-growing industry will generate $14.8 billion revenue in 2025. The industry revenue is expected to rise from $7.7 billion in 2021 to $9 billion in 2022, $10.7 billion in 2023, $12.6 billion in 2024 and $14.8 billion in 2025. 85% of this revenue will be generated by access to the Internet.

According to PwC’s Global Entertainment and Media Outlook (2020-2024), Nigeria’s media and entertainment industry is one of the fastest growing creative industries in the world. It has the capability to become the country’s greatest export, with projected annual growth rate of 8.6% and a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 19.3% from 2018-2023.

The Multixept Associates Limited is already building a film city in Epe.

US$100 Million Cannot Build a Film City

US$100 Million is a good investment to kickstart the building of a film city in Lagos by the Lagos State government. But that amount cannot even build a film village.
Lagos State government can start with a feasibility study and a budget of $5 Billion.

The best case study is Hollywood. And another good example is the Mumbai Film City; officially Dadasaheb Phalke Chitranagari, an integrated film studio complex situated near Sanjay Gandhi National Park in Goregaon East, Mumbai. It has several recording rooms, gardens, lakes, theatres and grounds that serve as the venue of many Bollywood and Marathi films. It was built in 1977 by the state government to provide facilities and concessions to the film industry. 

Lagos State government can call the film city in Epe, EKO FILM CITY.

A film city must have a state of the art high tech film studios, world class hotels and cinemas.
One single world class hotel will cost more than S100 million.
The construction of the main access road will cost more than US$100 million for a 21st century film city.
It must be a smart city with IoT.

Private partnership investors will be required by the Lagos State government.
it is best to have a stakeholders forum with local and international investors in the multibillion dollar Nigerian Entertainment Industry, including banks, insurance companies, construction companies and realtors.

- By Ekenyerengozi Michael Chima,
Publisher/Editor,
NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series,
the first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry.

#Lagos
#Lagosfilmcity
#Nollywood
#filmcity
#studios
#hotel
#filmvillage
#hotels
#investors

NOLLYWOOD: How Can A So Called Booming Film Industry Be Full of Hungry Actors and Directors?

NOLLYWOOD: How Can A So Called Booming Film Industry Be Full of Hungry Actors and Directors?

Nollywood makes news headlines as a booming film industry, the second largest in the world after the Bollywood of India in the production of movies estimated to be worth over US$250 million annually which is less than the total budget of Avatar ($280 million), Tangled ($260 million), Spider-Man 3 ($258 million) or Pirates of the Caribbean sequels ($300 million).
See "Nollywood: The Nigerian Film Industry by Harvard Kennedy School on http://www.isc.hbs.edu/pdf/Student_Projects/Nigeria_Film_2008.pdf, which every literate person in Nigeria and others in the world should read

The realities in Nollywood are different from the booming headlines, because majority of the actors and directors are living in poverty from Lagos to Asaba.

Majority of the filmmakers are not well paid for their movies by the leading multinational cable TV network, MultiChoice Nigeria of the MultiChoice Group and many of them just wanted to have their movies on the DStv Channels of MultiChoice such as the Africa Magic for the publicity. Then only few of them smiled to the bank from the box office revenues of their movies distributed and exhibited by local film distributors and cinemas. The cinemas have not been making enough for a so called booming film industry without a film market. The highest grossing Nollywood movie from the box office in Nigeria, Funke Akindele- Bello's "Ọmọ́ Ghetto, The Saga" made less than N700 million which is not even up to the monthly incomes of the co-CEOs of Netflix, Reed Hastings who  earns more than $40.8 million annually and Ted Sarandos who  earns more than $38.2 million annually.
So, Nollywood is still far from the news headlines of a booming film industry.

#nollywood #bollywood #ceos #boxoffice #income #revenue
#film #netflix #filmmakers #africa #nigeria #network #india #school #bank #filmmarket #distribution #cinemas #actors #directors #spiderman #avatar #harvard #movies #dstv #multichoice #asaba #budget #hastings #sarandos #news #africamagic #piratesofthecaribbean

Nollywood Still Missing at the Cannes Film Festival

Nollywood Still Missing at the Cannes Film Festival

30 years since the production of the blockbuster home video, "Living in Bondage" in 1992 and 20 years after the New York Times coined the word #Nollywood in 2002 for the phenomenal guerilla film industry in Nigeria with over 2000 movies produced annually and rated as the second largest film industry in the world after the #Bollywood of India and ahead of #Hollywood of America, no Nollywood movie has ever been chosen for the Official Selections of the Cannes Film Festival when filmmakers from other African countries have competed with the best for the highly coveted Palme d'Or and have won it a couple of times.

Morocco, Senegal, Ghana and Mali are among the countries with films in the Official Selection of the 75th annual Cannes Film Festival beginning on Tuesday, 17 May and ending on Saturday, 28 May. 

https://www.festival-cannes.com/en/infos-communiques/communique/articles/the-films-of-the-official-selection-2022.

While, the ambitious filmmakers in the world are going to be in competition for the highly coveted Palme d'Or, at the Cannes Film Festival in France, Nigerian filmmakers are hyping themselves on Instagram and competing for bragging rights in Nollywood.

Nollywood filmmakers are lagging behind in the biggest competitions in the global film industry. That is why none of them has qualified for the Official Selections of the Cannes Film Festival and nominations for the Academy Awards.

India will be the official ‘Country of Honour’ at the upcoming Marche’s Du Film which will be organized alongside the Cannes Film Festival 2022 in France. And this is the first time that such honour has been bestowed on any country.

Nollywood, where art thou?

- By EKENYERENGOZI Michael Chima,
The Publisher/Editor,
NOLLYWOOD MIRROR® Series,
the first book series on Nollywood and the Nigerian film industry.

RED, A Thriller from India

RED, A Thriller from India

Avanti Arts P Ltd and Prajakta Films ‘ RED starring KRUSHNA ABHISHEK, PAYAL GHOSH, ABHIJIT SHWETCHANDRA, KANCHAN BHOR and above all SHAKTI KAPOOR is directed by ASHOK TYAGI and produced by RAJEEV CHAUDHARI and REKHA SURENDRA JAGTAP and is co – produced by JAGANNATH WAGHMARE and CHANDRAKANT PAWAR.

RED is a very sensational and emotional thriller. The film with music by HRIJU ROY, thrills by PAPPU VERMA and cinematography by AKRAM KHAN. 

The story revolves around a college girl, played by Ghosh, who then transcends into a housewife and then an escort. The character has a remarkable dramatic arc one that has challenged Ghosh’s range as an actor. A source revealed, “Payal has left no stone unturned during her preparation for the character and she has worked very hard on making each part starkly different than the other.”

Contact:

Ashok Tyagi,
Secretary General - ICMEI 
FC 14/15 Film City , Sector 16 A , Noida. UP India  
Phone Office :  +91- 120-4831143/90 Mob : +91-9560454915
www.icmei.in

Why Bollywood and Nollywood Have Not Won the Oscar for the Best International Feature Film

Why #Bollywood and #Nollywood Have Not Won the #Oscar for the Best International Feature Film

#Oscars 
 #academyawards
#movies

In nearly 75 years, the Oscar for best international film has only gone to an African production three times and a Bollywood production has never won. Europe dominates the category. Why?

Bollywood also snubbed by Hollywood

Half of the Asian-winning films are Japanese productions. Despite the size of Bollywood's film industry, India has never won the best international film award.

Another reason is the lack of financial means to promote Indian films to the Academy, says Namrata Joshi, an Indian film critic and author who has served on international film festivals juries in Toronto, Moscow and Cluj.

Even though Nigeria's internationally renowned Nollywood industry produces around 2,500 films a year, it hasn't won a single foreign film Academy Award.

Nollywood productions often do not meet the technical requirements of a cinema film since the focus is on home television. According to Ayorinde, streaming services like Netflix could change the situation significantly. Netflix is raising the bar, he says, by requiring cinematic standards even for films made for home viewing.

Read the report on 

https://amp.dw.com/en/oscars-where-are-the-african-films/a-61187154

Highly recommended: Nigerians Report Online: Why Nollywood Filmmakers Have Failed To Qualify for the Oscars and Cannes

Cinemas in Nigeria Are Losing Millions of Dollars Due To Poor Marketing and Publicity

The trailer of "The American King", a new Hollywood and Nollywood comedy showing in selected cinemas in Nigeria.

Popular NIgerian actress, Shan George in front of Genesis Cinemas in Asaba, Delta State, NIgeria.

Cinemas in Nigeria are losing millions of dollars, because of poor marketing and publicity.

Nigerian film distributors and exhibitors don't seem to have any  budget for the marketing and publicity of movies for cinemas in Nigeria rated as the second largest film industry in the world after India for the annual quantity of film productions.

The more marketing promotions for their movies, the more people that will be attracted to watch the movies and increase the population of moviegoers in Nigeria with more sales of tickets.

I have been increasing the attractions of cinemas by having screenings of documentary films for secondary schools at the cinemas since 2013 to date. The secondary school students who were teenagers seven years ago in 2013 are now grown-ups in their 20s and majority of them have graduated from tertiary institutions and gainfully employed with enough disposable incomes to pay for tickets for movies at the cinemas. 

Many of them have commended me for their appreciation of the cinema culture.

Film distributors and exhibitors in the established film industries of Hollywood of the United States of America, Bollywood of India, China, UK and South Africa have  budgets of millions of dollars for marketing and publicity for movies and their movies have been the highest grossing movies in the world which the NIgerian film industry has not achieved with the thousands of movies produced annually in Nollywood and Kannywood.

South Africa does not produce up to a quarter of the movies produced annually by NIgeria, but  has produced the highest grossing movies in Africa with "District 9" grossing US$210.8 million in 200;  followed by "The God's Must Be Crazy" - US$100 million; "Zambezia" - US$34.4 million; "Mandela: Long Walk To Freedom" - US$27.3 million; "Khumba )" – $28.42 million (which the producers even reached out to me for the publicity in 2013) and the critically acclaimed "Tsotsi" - $12 million. It was the first African film to win the highly coveted Academy Award for Best Foreign Language Film (now Best International Feature Film) in 2006.

No NIgerian movie has made up to US$3 million from the box office.

The ready made common reason would be that South Africa has hundreds of cinemas whereas NIgeria has less than 100 cinemas. But the 100 cinemas with about 220 screens can make up to US$3 million monthly with proper marketing and publicity for movies. 

The Cinema Exhibitors Association of Nigeria (CEAN) reported that cinemas in Nigeria made N301.48 million from tickets sold across the country in February, 2022 

National President of CEAN, Mr. Patrick Lee said this was a tremendous increase compared with N224.34 million made from ticket sales in February, 2021. 

UNESCO reported that the African film industry has great potential, but the lack of infrastructure like one cinema screen per 787,402 people makes it a laggard.

According to a new UNESCO report, about 5 million people currently work in the film sector in Africa, which contributes $5 billion to the continent's GDP. 

Film distributors and exhibitors in Nigeria should increase their budgets for marketing and publicity of the movies they have accepted for their cinemas. They have to increase the appreciation for cinemas by millions of people in NIgeria from the lower class to the upper class of the society.

Over 60 million Nigerians spend over N730 billion annually on sports betting and at least two billion naira is generated daily according to a recent data with each one spending more than N3, 000 weekly on betting. So, millions of Nigerians have disposable personal income (DPI) to afford paying for tickets for movies at the cinemas. 

- By EKENYERENGOZI Michael Chima,

Publisher/Editor, 

NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series 

247 Nigeria (@247nigeria) / Twitter

https://mobile.twitter.com/247nigeria

https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelchimaeyerengozi

           The American King is currently the #1 Comedy in NIgeria from March 4-17, 2022 and has attracted thousands of moviegoers to the cinemas.                           

Who is the #1 Action Hero in Nollywood?

Who is the #1 Action Hero in Nollywood?

1. Daniel Kanayo Daniel in "A Soldier's Story" 2015, for which he won the 2016 Africa Magic Viewers' Choice Awards (AMVCA) and the Africa Movie Academy Awards (AMAA) awards for Best Actor and in the sequel "A Soldier's Story 2" in 2021 acquired by Lionsgate.

2. JLeo Uche in "Rough Chase", 2015 and *A Trip To Libya", 2020.

JLeo Uche comes top of the league of action heroes for his outstanding expertise in martial arts and choreography of unarmed combat in duels.

3. Abbey Abimbola, aka Crackydon, in "BlackOut", 2021, his first Nollywood blockbuster action movie opening at the cinemas next month.

One of the three action thrillers will be the Best Nigerian Action Movie of the Year.

These three actors are currently the best Nigerian action heroes in Nollywood, the phenomenal first indie film industry in Africa that is rated the second largest in the world after the Bollywood of India in the annual quantity of movies. And has attracted Netflix, the #1 streaming video service in the world with more than 209 million subscribers so far.

- By EKENYERENGOZI Michael Chima 

Publisher/Editor, 

NOLLYWOOD MIRROR®Series 

247 Nigeria (@247nigeria) / Twitter

https://mobile.twitter.com/247nigeria

https://www.amazon.com/author/ekenyerengozimichaelchima

https://www.linkedin.com/in/michaelchimaeyerengozi.