Hollywood and the Indian film industry take the top two billings in filmmaking… but who’s third.
Nigeria…
The African nation with a population of 14 crore people has a film industry called Nollywood and makes inexpensive films. Most of them are simple vodood horror movies. But Africans across want more.Sources state that films are completed in mere ten days in the African nation and hence the shoot schedules are extremely tight.
The film industry has boomed in a mere 13 years – from zilch to an approximated returns of US$200m (Rs 900 crore) every year. These cheap films have a huge return leading to more and more films being made.These films are shot on video only and made into tapes and DVDs and sold across the world which are bought not just by local residents but the African diaspora across the world. London and the US are big markets
If Hollywood provides a spectacle and Bollywood its song and dance numbers, Nollywood’s films centre around witchcraft and demonic possession. The films budgets move between £10000 ( Rs 8 lakh) to £ 20000 ( Rs 16 lakh) which effectively means that the star is not paid more than one fifth of the amount.
A comparative analysis of the burgeoning regional Bhojpuri film industry in India reveals that Bhojpuri films itself have a spend five times more than Nollywood explaining the cost effective ways of the latter and the untapped DVD markets for Bhojpuri films.
