Hollywood, Bollywood… Ah! Ha! Nollywood! Life as a way of taking shape on its own if will fail to straighten its bends and correct its mistakes. In the movie world Hollywood is no stranger to the masses and the youngest of children. Over the years, Hollywood has grown to surpass the imagination of the world, creating wonders, taking the movie-lovers to space and light years back in time. According to Wikipedia, Hollywood is a district in Los Angeles, California, United States of America. Before going further readers or surfers of the site would register a smile and wonder tagging that definition down as a joke to share with some friends.
The world as we know, has been constant in shape since its creation but Hollywood as taken so many hues, shapes and sizes that we no longer have a definite understanding of the city. The only constant feature of this unique state is that it is never constant. Part of the positive influence of Hollywood is related to the establishment of Bollywood, a portmanteau of Bombay (the former name for Mumbai) and Hollywood, the centre of American Film Industry. The term Bollywood originated in the 1970s, when India overtook America as the world’s largest film producer.
Indian movies were introduced to most Nigerians via the Northerners. We heard the music from far, saw the dances, and watched another way of life being introduced to our locale. Their funny lifestyles and manner of dressing soon took Nigerian women by storm. Over time, these two great movie industries have succeeded in creating quality visual productions with the use of first class equipments and they are still breaking grounds as well as paving way for the underdogs. A popular Nigerian proverb states that “The horse behind walks in the footstep of the one in front. Unfortunately for our dear Nollywood we have chosen to represent and console ourselves with substandard movies tagged “Home Videos. ” Wikipedia defines Nollywood as a “nascent” film industry in Nigeria. Nollywood has also the joined the league of the largest film producers in the world and is ranked as the third and largest in Africa. For a country that has been producing movies since the 1960s, we still have a long way to go and with each passing moment it seems like we are not making progress with our film productions.
Nigeria is rich in man power, ideas, resources and all sorts of talents but our film industry has failed to showcase the true Nigeria, Revealing our landmarks, our beautiful cities, rivers and traditional culture. Film industries such as Hollywood and Bollywood have a definite location in the world map but our dear Nollywood is still searching for a piece of land. Though our industry is recognized our films still lack the quality texture suitable enough for international nominations such as Cannes Film Festivals as well as Oscars or the Golden Globe Awards.
It is a common saying that Rome was not built in a day and part of our boast is that most Nigerian movies are produced in less than a week, three days to be precise. If Rome was built in a day, then it would be located in Nigeria. In the United States of America, the entertainment sector is the third largest and richest industry and also in India, Bollywood as an industry has succeeded in teaming up the American Film Industry, Hollywood. Creating a market that sells and moves the country’s economic growth as well.
We look up to Hollywood for the best kind of War, Biographical, Scary and Action films, while the Indian entice us with the musical and dance spectacles. As for Nigeria and our Nollywood, we are left with our traditional, spiritual and so called contemporaries “Home Videos” but these movies lack quality. Nollywood is still a name written in pencil if we fail to face the fact and our best is yet to be show cased just as “The Beautiful Ones Are Not yet Born. ”
