MEMOIRS OF NOLLYWOOD

As a young girl, growing up in Nigeria made me to get used to a lot of things. One thing I remember so well is the way movies were advertised on T.V.  In the late 90’s and early part of the 21^st century, a movie advert in Nigeria sounded like this;

                            

P.s: you ought to scream while reading this so you can get the full effect.

“Dem don come again ooh, see as small pikin won put their papa for trouble. AKI and POPO!! AKI and POPO!!!! Starring Osita Iheme, Chinedu ikedieze and other obonge actors wey dey inside. AKI and POPO!!  AKI and POPO!!! Marketed and distributed by Okechukwu and sons limited at no 51, Iweka road Onitsha and no 1/3 pound road aba… dem don dey sell am for Alaba international market, Lagos. AKI and POPO!! AKI and POPO!!!........GO GRAB YOUR COPY…NOW!!!!”

Phew! Screaming that at the top of your voice could be pretty exhausting and this tells me that the people who do the adverts must really have a lot of energy and also take a lot of honey to be that good.

The Nigerian movie industry better known as Nollywood has evolved over the years. Not a few people will attest to the fact that the industry has been through a lot. We have seen changes in the type of movies produced, type of actors acting the movies and even in the titles used for the movies.

Type of movies produced

Back in the day we were used to seeing movies that could apply to our daily lives because they looked so real. Movies like Living in bondage, True confession, Chain reaction, church in business, Igodo amongst others. We even had the likes of Glamour girls, Abuja connection…e.t.c.

Type of actors acting the movies

We have been through the era of Kenneth okonkwo, zack orji, Liz benson, Hilda dokubo. Then came the time of RMD, sam dede, bimbo akintola, grace amah, nkiru Silvanus, shan George. Next was Genevieve nnaji, omotola jalade, desmond Elliot, jim iyke, Ramsey noah, ini edo, mercy Johnson, mike ezuronye and a host of others. Some are still trending in this present  time.
It got a to point in the industry where actors from our neighboring African countries like Ghana started acting and starring in our movies. We  have actors like Van Vicker, Yvonne nelson, Jackie Appiah….e.t.c

Titles used for the movies

Nollywood has grown with so many titles all in a bid to get publicity because as we know good publicity + bad publicity = publicity, either way people get to talk about it. For love movies we’ve had titles like; is this love? Could this be love? Bleeding love e.t.c. for comedy we’ve seen titles like he-goat, sledge hammer, osuofia in London. Lets not forget the recent ones like blackberry babes(?).

Then came the revolution. I started seeing adverts on t.v that sounded like this ;

p.s read this as quietly as you can

 “what would you do for money, riches and fame? Would you go to any extent? How far can you run? Starring ramsey noah, omoni oboli IN……..THE FIGURINE (ARAROMIRE)… SHOWING IN CINEMAS.”

After seeing this, I was like wow! Change is finally here.  Before you know it, a lot of producers started making movies that would be premiered in cinemas. Movies like reloaded, through the glass, irapada were all brought to the public in like manner.

Even though we don’t get to see the Hollywood ‘jumping off the train’ stunts (not their fault because most trains here don’t work) or the ‘diving into the ocean’ stunts (also not their fault because most rivers here are more like gutters) we still have movies that promote our cultural values as a nation e.g EKAETTE.

As there are good movies in nollywood we also have the bad ones which is one of the many reasons  why some Nigerian parents today, prefer to feed their children on an “all white/foreign movie” diet. Some of the movies produced there even demean our cultural values as a nation. At the end, its all a matter of choice. We just have to start making good movies because when something is good it will surely sell even when ther is no publicity. Like a proverb in pidgin English “Ijebu garri no get advert but people dey buy am”

We can say nollywood has done fairly well. It’s only a matter of time, slowly but surely we would get there. Now we are watching movies at the cinemas next thing we know all our movies will be in 3D.

Keep your heads up because the revolution will be televised!..... HAPPY NEW MONTH IN ADVANCE.

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