ChittahChattah Quickies
April 6th, 2010
- Nollywood success puts Nigeria’s film industry in regional spotlight [Times Online] – Nollywood began about 20 years ago with the birth of home video cameras, and is now a movie-making machine that churns out about 600 titles a year. Unesco, the UN cultural organisation, said last year that Nollywood was now the second-biggest film industry in the world in terms of output, after Bollywood in India. It called for greater support to nurture the industry so that it can exploit the huge market that it has uncovered. It is now also the country’s second-largest employer, after the federal Government, though figures vary enormously depending on what is being shot at the time. The films can take about a month to complete and cost no more than £19,000 to make. On the streets they sell for about £1.50 a copy. About 20 titles used to emerge every week, selling thousands of copies. The industry is now said to be worth upwards of £100 million a year.