Nollywood is as much a film industry as any other. The industry is not without history, facts, limitations and glories.
Everywhere you find creatives, you inevitably find these things. As is the case for many actors around the world, in Nollywood you will also find people who are taking accent lessons to sound American.
Those who are bleaching their skin colour and doing all manner of bodywork. Lastly, those who secretly go to the media to give them interviews to promote popularity.
But, even if these things also happen in the industry, it isn’t anything close to Hollywood. So, the comparison with what Hollywood is getting is a bit out of place.
Five real facts about Nollywood that you should know about
To begin with, Nollywood is a self-grown industry and isn’t getting any governmental support. The industry contributes immensely to the economic growth of the country even without support.
The number of cinemas in Nigeria is growing every day. Still, in their entirety, filmmakers still aren’t able to recover their investment. This is due to the web of piracy masterminded by marketers of Nigerian movies. This set of people have been the industry’s biggest downfall.
An average Nigerian movie production is budgeted at a million naira. Nobody wants to make a million dollars film and have it pirated at the Alaba market. So, it is time to stop the poor quality talks against Nollywood and comparison with Hollywood movies.
According to Google trend, people in Nigeria read more news about Nollywood gossip and lifestyle more than they read informative or filmmaking articles. This also leads to our next fact.
As a result of the celebrity lifestyle enjoyed by readers, the most in-demand job in the industry is acting jobs.
That is hardly the case for other industries where producer and director jobs are the most in-demand. Also, people just need quick jobs which most times Nollywood offers without requiring any experiences.
