Actor calls for increased cinema productions

Nollywood

Mr Dele Osawe, the Chief Executive Officer, Manete International, a movie production organisation, on Tuesday, described cinema production as sure means of generating income for producers and curbing piracy in the industry.

Osawe said that there was a score mark in film production, “but our problem is piracy.

“It will pay off if we face the cinemas and increase production for the cinemas; this way, producers
will have made money before it will be produced into movie.

“At that point, it will not be so painful if any quack is pirating the copy.”

He recalled that some movie producers had their copies badly pirated that they could barely earn a living from their work.

He said “when you look at Funke Akindele’s comedy show — Jenifa’s Diary, it has been pirated so badly and I weep for her.

“If all the money from that comedy show is going to Funke, she will be happy, but pirates have pirated it so much that it has different versions in the market.

“She is not getting the money for the pirated copy as the original copy will be sold for about
N400, while the pirated copy can go for N100 and customers can easily pick up the pirated copy at N100.”

He added that while it was important to invest in cinema production, there was need to rehabilitate abandoned cinema houses.

He decried the situation whereby some cinema houses were turned into places of worship,
which he said was unacceptable.

He said “it is unfortunate that some cinema houses are now Church halls, which is a sad case. We should try as much as possible to gain back those cinema houses and rebuild them.’’

Osawe explained that Nollywood movies over the past three decades had fared well and stood the chance of being placed at same level with movies elsewhere in the world.

The producer said individuals had contributed greatly to the development of the movie industry, but it required government assistance to enable it to achieve greater goals.

The veteran actor, however, said the lack of unity among different groups had deterred the industry from receiving the necessary attention from government.

He urged practitioners to cooperate to build formidable force to stamp out piracy from the industry.