THE NOLLY/GHOLLY EFFECT

Over the past months I have observed the current trend in the Nigerian movies which is the collaboration of both Nigerian and Ghanaian movie stars in the same movie. At first I thought this was a good and welcomed development that will help spread the tentacles of the Nigerian motion picture industry beyond the shores of Nigeria and will help develop the Ghanaian movie industry also know an GHOLLYWOOD but as at now, I think the concept has been overstretched.

The present surge of these movie have ridiculed whatever hopes of development I had in the first place because the producers are churning out these “Nolly-Gholly” fiasco in huge numbers therefore making their main objective quantity instead of quality. These movies are even worse than the usual pathetic Nollywood movies we make because the producers just want to use this as a marketing strategy and nothing else. The storylines are pathetic, the actors are cast wrongly, the screenplay is hogwash and don’t get me started on the title of these movies. With movie titles like Beyonce & Rihanna (watch The Trailer here), how can Nollywood be seen as a force to reckon with in the world? How can the Nigeria-Ghana collaboration be taken seriously? Ghanaians don’t pay tax here, yet they come here in droves, make money and return to their country to live lavishly. The reason marketers use them more now is simply because of greed. They charge less and permit me to say, they don’t act too well. But our marketers will sell their souls to gain extra kobo. Why would they want to use us when we charge them and deliver premium quality when there is someone who will charge less and probably deliver less? They prefer the extra cash to quality. Nigerian movies will sell anywhere, whether it has an all Nigerian cast in it or not. Another dangerous twist to this issue is that marketers are now going as far as Sierra Leone, Liberia and other African countries scouting for artistes that would give their works marketing leverage. And most of the time, marketers hold up production for them and adjust shooting time to fit their schedules.

I have nothing against this allegiance but I think both parties need to go back to their drawing boards and make good movies that are worthy of being called transnational movies because if they continue like this, the movie industry in both countries would have taken one step forward and 2 steps backwards.