At a time celebrated film maker Tunde Kelani should be very happy and laughing all the way to the bank, he is currently a sad man. The usually optimistic producer is indeed downcast and disillusioned. Reason: Maami, a film he released on DVD on Monday, has been massively pirated.
“This may be the last time I will release
a film in Nigeria,” TK said on the phone in an emotional voice on
Thursday. “Our industry is completely gone. I released Maami on
Monday. Barely 24 hours after, pirates are using wheelbarrows to sell
it in Lagos. They have pirated the film such that it has flooded every
nook and cranny of Nigeria. Interestingly, everyone quotes this miracle
data about the development of Nollywood and its contribution to the
Gross Domestic Product. What a lie! I can’t go on like this. This may be
the last time I will release any film, at least here in Nigeria.”
Years after Kelani finished work on the
film that stars Funke Akindele and Olumide Bakare he could not release
another one. While he screened it in different parts of the country and
beyond, his experience with pirates on his earlier movies that include
Arugba and Campus Queen did not encourage him to push Maami out immediately. Now that he has eventually released it, the goons have yet ambushed him.
Also in a statement released by Kelani’s
Mainframe Production on Thursday, he said he was called by fans to
draw his attention to the activities of the pirates who recreated the
imprints and the jackets of the film, dubbed on cheap DVD for sales. The
original copy of Maami, marketed by Ajimson Integrated Services
Limited, as mastered on DVD , is contained in a jewel box and is
laminated.
Nigerian film industry, he feared, would
continue to experience the menace of pirates and investors would suffer
due to lack of infrastructure, especially when physical distribution
channels are infested by pirates whose dangerous activities are
unchecked.
“In the last 10 years, I have tried
everything to survive the attacks. I have relied on donors and well-
wishers to continue to make films but each time I loose all the
investments, therefore I cannot continue to live the rest of my life in
this dangerous place called Nigeria.”
So disillusioned is Kelani that he fears for young Nigerians wanting to go into film business.
He explained, “I pity young Nigerians
aspiring to become filmmakers and my advice to them is to seek other
media if they have the talent or they can go to agriculture because
Nigeria one day will need to feed itself. Nigeria that Fela Anikulapo
called BBC, the Big Blind Country is finally here.”
Kelani’s story is not
different from what many of his colleagues have experienced. Apart from
distribution issues, pirates feast on films and musical works with
impunity. The Nigerian Copyright Commission says it is doing its best
but this is far from being enough to bring sanity to the sector. So bad
has the situation become that many actors, producers and directors are
facing hard times, not minding the fame and usual physical glitz they
radiate.
Punch