Bollywood’s no. 1 spot threatened by Nigeria’s Nollywood
May 8, 2009 posted by indiatime |
Bollywood, the most prolific producer of cinema in the world, may soon be losing that crown to a place that seems to have quietly surpassed every other cinema-producing country and is now closing in on India’s heels. Unesco’s institute for Statistics has just released a global survey on the state of cinema in the world, and places Nigeria’s Nollywood ahead of Hollywood, but just a few steps behind Bollywood.

According to the survey, here are the top movie producing countries for the year 2006

1. India (1091)
2. Nigeria (872)
3. United States (456)
4. Japan (417)
5. China (330)

But the US beats everyone else in terms of the number of cinema houses

1. United States (38,415)
2. China (37,753)
3. India (11,183)
4. France (5,362)
5. Nigeria (4,871)

The statistics on Nigeria seems to be a little skewed however. First of all, most of Nigerian movies are digital format movies, shot in 2 or 3 weeks and then distributed through an informal and a non-institutionalized chain of home theaters and private cinema houses. That is not how Hollywood or Bollywood or the Chinese or the Japanese cinema make most of their movies. By those standards, Youtube might soon become the highest cinema-producing place where hundreds if not thousands of short movies are produced and released every minute of every day.

Plus Bollywood itself is much more than Mumbai’s film production companies. In fact, the number of Telugu and Tamil films produced closely rivals that of the number of Hindi-language films produced in India. That again, is another specialty for India where regional films are just as popular as the national-language ones. But Indian cinema has a solid history of over a hundred years - Cinema was introduced in India in the last years of the 19th century, and the first indigenous movie production occurred back in 1913. In fact, even back in 1930s, India was said to be churning out over 200 movies per year.

Another factor to consider is the popularity and the longevity of the movies produced. Hollywood and Bollywood have repeatedly shown that capability (though Bollywood’s may be based more on the musical numbers). Nigeria has yet to show solid results on that front. So even if the Nigerian cinema is considered as mainstream cinema for the sake of discussion, it is still a bit of a stretch to consider it on par with Hollywood or Bollywood.

Not that I consider Bollywood on par with Hollywood in the first place. Personally, I think Bollywood’s quality has continued to deteriorate and erode over last few decades. In fact, if you look at the list of highest grossing Bollywood movies there isn’t a single movie, not a single one I repeat, that will make it to the all time Bollywood classics on my list. Unless one begins to adjust for inflation and this and that and what not. It’s almost as if Bollywood stopped making classics sometime in the 1970s. I wonder what happened.

http://www.indiatime.com/2009/05/08/bollywoods-no-1-spot-threatened-by-nigerias-nollywood/

5 Comments so far

challa on May 8, 2009 7:44 pm Once again an Indian mistakes quantity for quality.

Light on May 8, 2009 10:39 pm I had seen some good films like Ankhio ke zarokho se, Damad,Golmal,Shaukeen,Julie,Des Pardes,Aandhi,Amanush,Khubsoort,Chupke Chupke etc, All these films were family entertainer with some of the best songs. Gradually our film makers lost their creativity and had started copying Hollywood badly.Rich businessmen who had no idea about films dumped huge money in bollywood.Now modern cinema has lost all its senses,one can’t see a film with family,so much sex and violence. But theres some good films I have seen recently The wednesday,Aamir. Theres no shortage of themes in country like India,but film makers must have a fire inside to do somthing fruitful.

Jithin on May 10, 2009 12:17 am First of all Bollywood does not produce 1091 movies. Its the total of all the regional film industries of India. And to tell you the truth Bollywood is a joke.

Ramu on May 16, 2009 8:21 pm Indian movies:
1. The gun always rules except that the hero almost never dies
2. Male chases female endlessly
3. Audience expecting when the couple will engage in lips-locking
4. Cheap Hollywood ripoffs can still attract millions
5. Actresses are more willing at flaunting their cleavage in almost every movie (Aishwarya, Shreya, the Arora sistas, you name it)
6. Oh yes. Sex scenes (yes, ones involving nudity) will very shortly make their appearance in the late 2010s.

Francisca on May 27, 2009 4:03 pm Namasté

Mera name Francisca ,and Bollywood is the Number one in Germany …Bollywood iss the best in the cinema :-).

Bollywood iss the Number one in germany and in the world

hello.

1. India (1091) to the Cinema worldwide


2. Nigeria (872) to Home videos


Knowing that 99% of Nigerian films would have a part 2, 3, 4 if possible

edogram.:

Bollywood’s no. 1 spot threatened by Nigeria’s Nollywood
May 8, 2009 posted by indiatime |
Bollywood, the most prolific producer of cinema in the world, may soon be losing that crown to a place that seems to have quietly surpassed every other cinema-producing country and is now closing in on India’s heels. Unesco’s institute for Statistics has just released a global survey on the state of cinema in the world, and places Nigeria’s Nollywood ahead of Hollywood, but just a few steps behind Bollywood.

According to the survey, here are the top movie producing countries for the year 2006

1. India (1091)
2. Nigeria (872)
3. United States (456)
4. Japan (417)
5. China (330)

But the US beats everyone else in terms of the number of cinema houses

1. United States (38,415)
2. China (37,753)
3. India (11,183)
4. France (5,362)
5. Nigeria (4,871)

The statistics on Nigeria seems to be a little skewed however. First of all, most of Nigerian movies are digital format movies, shot in 2 or 3 weeks and then distributed through an informal and a non-institutionalized chain of home theaters and private cinema houses. That is not how Hollywood or Bollywood or the Chinese or the Japanese cinema make most of their movies. By those standards, Youtube might soon become the highest cinema-producing place where hundreds if not thousands of short movies are produced and released every minute of every day.

Plus Bollywood itself is much more than Mumbai’s film production companies. In fact, the number of Telugu and Tamil films produced closely rivals that of the number of Hindi-language films produced in India. That again, is another specialty for India where regional films are just as popular as the national-language ones. But Indian cinema has a solid history of over a hundred years - Cinema was introduced in India in the last years of the 19th century, and the first indigenous movie production occurred back in 1913. In fact, even back in 1930s, India was said to be churning out over 200 movies per year.

Another factor to consider is the popularity and the longevity of the movies produced. Hollywood and Bollywood have repeatedly shown that capability (though Bollywood’s may be based more on the musical numbers). Nigeria has yet to show solid results on that front. So even if the Nigerian cinema is considered as mainstream cinema for the sake of discussion, it is still a bit of a stretch to consider it on par with Hollywood or Bollywood.

Not that I consider Bollywood on par with Hollywood in the first place. Personally, I think Bollywood’s quality has continued to deteriorate and erode over last few decades. In fact, if you look at the list of highest grossing Bollywood movies there isn’t a single movie, not a single one I repeat, that will make it to the all time Bollywood classics on my list. Unless one begins to adjust for inflation and this and that and what not. It’s almost as if Bollywood stopped making classics sometime in the 1970s. I wonder what happened.

http://www.indiatime.com/2009/05/08/bollywoods-no-1-spot-threatened-by-nigerias-nollywood/

5 Comments so far

challa on May 8, 2009 7:44 pm Once again an Indian mistakes quantity for quality.

Light on May 8, 2009 10:39 pm I had seen some good films like Ankhio ke zarokho se, Damad,Golmal,Shaukeen,Julie,Des Pardes,Aandhi,Amanush,Khubsoort,Chupke Chupke etc, All these films were family entertainer with some of the best songs. Gradually our film makers lost their creativity and had started copying Hollywood badly.Rich businessmen who had no idea about films dumped huge money in bollywood.Now modern cinema has lost all its senses,one can’t see a film with family,so much sex and violence. But theres some good films I have seen recently The wednesday,Aamir. Theres no shortage of themes in country like India,but film makers must have a fire inside to do somthing fruitful.

Jithin on May 10, 2009 12:17 am First of all Bollywood does not produce 1091 movies. Its the total of all the regional film industries of India. And to tell you the truth Bollywood is a joke.

Ramu on May 16, 2009 8:21 pm Indian movies:
1. The gun always rules except that the hero almost never dies
2. Male chases female endlessly
3. Audience expecting when the couple will engage in lips-locking
4. Cheap Hollywood ripoffs can still attract millions
5. Actresses are more willing at flaunting their cleavage in almost every movie (Aishwarya, Shreya, the Arora sistas, you name it)
6. Oh yes. Sex scenes (yes, ones involving nudity) will very shortly make their appearance in the late 2010s.

Francisca on May 27, 2009 4:03 pm Namasté

Mera name Francisca ,and Bollywood is the Number one in Germany …Bollywood iss the best in the cinema :-).

Bollywood iss the Number one in germany and in the world

incredible

i hope not the nolly puppy is bad sick enough as it is

i love Bollywood,to me they are the best, Kajol has always been my best actress

edogram.:

UN Dispatch's John Boonstra passes along a fascinating milestone. The Nigerian film industry (known as Nollywood) has surpassed Hollywood to become the world's second largest after India's Bollywood:

According to the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS) survey, Bollywood – as the Mumbai-based film industry is known – produced 1,091 feature-length films in 2006. In comparison, Nigeria’s moviemakers, commonly known as Nollywood, came out with 872 productions – all in video format – while the United States produced 485 major films.

“Film and video production are shining examples of how cultural industries, as vehicles of identity, values and meanings, can open the door to dialogue and understanding between peoples, but also to economic growth and development,” said UNESCO Director-General Koïchiro Matsuura.

“This new data on film and video production provides yet more proof of the need to rethink the place of culture on the international political agenda,” he added.

@Edogram
I want to correct a mistake you people keep making, Nollywood is not the Second largest film industry but the second largest film producers, there is a difference. I f you read my last posts you'll get the stats i put there. Largest has a lot to do with costs, worldwide acceptability, popularity, etc, in these terms, nothing for Nolly. Take note please.

please, don't think about it now,we ve got a long way to go.don't compare sleep with death i beg.nollywood that someone will be shot through glass and the glass will not break.

omar22:

I was once in a restuarant in South London, and I realised that 3 tables away from me they were shooting a scene for a nollywood movie and I gasp that WTF is going on here,

Atleast they should've acted like normal customers who came into a resturant, but no they had to over do it,

"That contract of a project worth £2m" was signed in a resturant,(Part of the movie storyline) the guy given it all large, he would do this do that, and everyone was looking at them, they should have asked the people in the restuarant to act normal and continue with their food and drinks but NO NO NO, A year later my mother called to say I could have dressed more decent if I was going to appear in a movie, I said to her that I just finished playing football and I was starving, I couldnt careless whether the guy with the camera man was a local or Martin Scorsese. I was so hungary to be bother about what they were doing, Another day in Thamesmead around 10am I heard someone shouting outside so I looked out of the window, guess what it was Jide Kosoko on the mobile bragging giving it large, calling £m as if he was Bill Gates, I thought it was a joke until realised that they were shooting a movie, I felt ashamed at that moment, because I have walked past a Bolywood movie setting around East London! the difference is like a gulf in size,

Has it ever occured to you that most Naija producers do not think they can achieve normality during a shoot, the indians know how to achieve that and they can share this.
Attracting government or other sponsors to movie is also something we need to learn and having forums to discuss this issue will be more for us than the indians.

samparian:

Nollywood and Bollywood can work together if:
1. There is a good story that can bring them together
2. Real investors from Nigeria willing to finance/ co produce such a story
3. Patience of the Nigerian investor ie willingness to wait for like 6 months minimum for production.

when we have this, we can work together. Bolloywood doesnt need us to progress, we need them to move ahead.

finally, someone who understands the need of such a collabo.
no denying we have more to gain and as such, its our call to invite them and co operate

I travelled to Hong Kong in 2000 and met with some reputable producers there and discussed what it would cost to shoot some scenes of a movie script i had written.
I had wanted to enter Nollywood with a big Bang.
To shoot just 17 scenes in hong kong would cost me about 1.2million naira then(excluding post production). the total 17 scenes of the movie would take up about 30 mins of the movie.
They gave me the layout and total cost, number of staff to be hired, fees to be paid to government etc. Now, these excluded the cost of flying in a Nigerian actor to play his part there.
I came back to Nigeria and talked to the CEO of Solid Production so we could collaboarate and produce the movie and he would market it.
The guy was scared shitless and said he was better off producing his normal movies even when i volunteered to pay for the Hong Kong shooting and expences of the Nollywood star who would go there.
After trying to involve some other marketers who declined, i also talked to actor Olisaemeka Ugwunze (Rattlesnake), he was excited but couldnt invest. After a while I forgot about Nollywood till 2007 when i was in Nigeria briefly, i was invited to supervise the production of The Kings Crown staring Nonso Diobi, Mercy Johnson, Jackie Appiah, etc.

The point of this my deviation is that our Nollywood producers cannot afford to produce a standard movie because we cant get back our investments based on DVD sales alone.
we are always impatient and want scripts that are written within a week.
A producer once approached me and asked that i give him an epic story within One week, because Igodo was doing so well in the market, every other producer wanted to produce an epic. i told him i couldnt. I currently working on a story and i've not finished it since 2004. And i intend to produce it myself when i'm through.

Just check the Nollywood market(if you're in Naija), you'll see that every producer brings out almost a similar story line.
action movies come out from various producers at once, same goes for comedies, occultic, romance, campus runs, etc. total rubbish!!!
we need to move beyond our borders to progress and the only way to do that is serious investments in statndard equipments, good stories and international collaboration

I'm not sure we have a single Movie studio in the whole of Nollywood. imagine! and we say we're competing with Bollywood that has Hundreds with standard movie equipments

Our camera men are not meant to climb walls or vehicles for overhead shots. there are equipments for that, but very few producers can afford to buy or even hire it

samparian:

I'm not sure we have a single Movie studio in the whole of Nollywood. imagine! and we say we're competing with Bollywood that has Hundreds with standard movie equipments

samparian:

Our camera men are not meant to climb walls or vehicles for overhead shots. there are equipments for that, but very few producers can afford to buy or even hire it

Samparian, I am pleased to inform you that as at the time, i started this thread, i had contacted a top indian producer and he mentioned exactly what you said about studios, presently, am aware of a northerner and at least one serious foreigner who want to come and build production studios in Nigeria.
Forums between india and nigeria, (indian having passed though all most of our current problems) might just be a solution to some of theissues everyone is raising.

One thing i can confidently say right now is that india is interested in the nigerian market, the question now remains if nigeria is willing to work with them or we want continue to pretend to compete where there is really no competition

Samparian, I am pleased to inform you that as at the time, i started this thread, i had contacted a top indian producer and he mentioned exactly what you said about studios, presently, am aware of a northerner and at least one serious foreigner who want to come and build production studios in Nigeria.
Forums between india and nigeria, (indian having passed though all most of our current problems) might just be a solution to some of theissues everyone is raising.

One thing i can confidently say right now is that india is interested in the nigerian market, the question now remains if nigeria is willing to work with them or we want continue to pretend to compete where there is really no competition

Most foreigners / foreign film-makers are looking for a cheap site to shoot their films, the Americans were not happy with Peter Jackson because he decided to shoot the blockbuster movie Lords of the Ring in newzealand, Wesley Snipe's films are being shot in Eastern Europe, It would be a great Idea if they invest in Nigeria

omar22:


Most foreigners / foreign film-makers are looking for a cheap site to shoot their films, the Americans were not happy with Peter Jackson because he decided to shoot the blockbuster movie Lords of the Ring in newzealand, Wesley Snipe's films are being shot in Eastern Europe, It would be a great Idea if they invest in Nigeria

@omar22
true. Foriegn fim makers are looking for cheap sites but the cheap sites MUST have standard equipments. You certainly dont expect them to fly all their equipments to New zealand? Do You know what it'll cost?? They come with some, but definitely need many other stuff to be on location
Do you know that the opening scenes of Mummy 2 were shot in Morocco? Universal studios just flew in Crew members, The Rock and cast local actors as his soldiers. Then brought in their props, and hired some equipments from a Studio in Morocco and took the shots they wanted.

Before we see foriegn investors, we MUST have at least one or two standard Movie studios in Nigeria

samparian:

@omar22
true. Foriegn fim makers are looking for cheap sites but the cheap sites MUST have standard equipments. You certainly dont expect them to fly all their equipments to New zealand? Do You know what it'll cost?? They come with some, but definitely need many other stuff to be on location
Do you know that the opening scenes of Mummy 2 were shot in Morocco? Universal studios just flew in Crew members, The Rock and cast local actors as his soldiers. Then brought in their props, and hired some equipments from a Studio in Morocco and took the shots they wanted.

Before we see foriegn investors, we MUST have at least one or two standard Movie studios in Nigeria

we r back to this again?

@Samparian
You are singing my song, where the hell have people like you been? I am involved in this stuff too but i only write and collaborate on stories (not scripts) with a few foreign parties. cos Nigerians feel my stories are not Nigerian enough (maybe just because my stories didn't have cultism, witch doctors or rituals in them). Hope to finish writing the 3 scripts i have been working on for years but they always seem to need fixing every time and when i'm done am going to shoot them when i am able to put together a good team (D.O.P. sound effects engineer, editor,etc.). i hope we can work together one day.

I agree with you but i believe , someone can make a good movie and have it edited on a basic apple or adobe workstation and it will meet international standards without a studio, i am not saying you are wrong about the studio, but i believe that there is too much selfishness, greed, and impatience in nollywood and that's what will destroy any hope for a studio. well except 1 man rich and passionate enough will do it.

Wetin Shilpa Sheti and Stephnora Okereke get in common??

Absolutely nothing what so ever.

@samparian
Nice pics of equipment you put on here, i am sure somewhere a nollywood film maker is looking at them and thinking a variety of things. eg.

1. Wow, they made things for that?
2. Nna that thing looks expensive , why don't i continue using my carpenter ladder? Nigerians are so dumb they won't know the difference.
3. That is Hollywood, this is Nollywood.
4. if you like put satellite camera picture for there, Nigerians like our rubbish the way it is.

Not possible

Wetin Shilpa Sheti and Stephnora Okereke get in common??

Well one is worth $63m

omar22:


Well one is worth $63m

Na all of dem worth dat? u no see d question well?

Okija_juju:

Wetin Shilpa Sheti and Stephnora Okereke get in common??

Most of those equipments i posted earlier are already in Ghana. some few producers in Ghana own them and lease it out.
Our problem is that we are always in a hurry to get to the top.
All the Alaba and Iweka marketers have become producers and directors over night and 90% of them dont even have any equipment or experience.
Nollywood is an all comers affair and the annoying thing is that they steal peoples scripts and give it to someone else to re write. And by the time they finish rewriting it, the story line is rubbished and the movie becomes an eye sore.
so sad

exactly my point. we either step up or step aside and allow Ghana to take over

Its just that the ghanaians have got better equipments but lousy actors and directors. try watching their epic movies and you'll see that High school kids in Nigeria will do a better job in custumes and acting.
we're better actors and directors than they are but they unlike us, they want to improve their game and are getting good equipments and stuff.
They've also got security which makes it easier for them to carry around very expensive equipments.
i remember that a producer friend of mine once asked me to help him check the price of a particular model of camera and when i told him a brand new one costs about $21,000us. he just screamed.
Till today, he still hires equipments for his movies

@Samparian
Did u see my last post?

Whats with the stupid dances and songs in bollywood films? Sometimes wen i'm getting to enjoying an indian film, the actors and actresses just launch into a dancing and singing fit.
I can picture desmond elliot, omotola, hanks anuku, kanayo, mr ibu e t c - all with one hand on hip, the other above the head, in a single file, dancing and shaking their hips and singing hideos songs.

"Whats with the stupid dances and songs in bollywood films? Sometimes wen i'm getting to enjoying an indian film, the actors and actresses just launch into a dancing and singing fit."

i thought i was the only one who finds the bollywood singing and dancing silly.

The singing and Dancing only seems silly to you guys cos you don't understand the indian culture. Open your minds people, I have watched a special performance by an indian dancer and singer before, with an open mind, its a beautiful thing.

true talk