Nollywood Continues to Outshine Kannywood
In the Nigerian entertainment industry, the southern film industry, , has eclipsed its northern counterpart, , especially in terms of revenue.
However, Kannywood has also been determined to find ways to survive and thrive in the industry without being defeated.
Many filmmakers from southern Nigeria and others from around the world are eager to go to northern Nigeria to make films using local stories, but they face challenges.
Among the obstacles they see as obstacles is the culture of the local people, who are mostly Muslim, and religion has a strong influence in the region, which needs to be addressed because films are made for the audience.
There are about 80 million Hausa speakers in the world, spread across West and Central Africa, as well as some residents of other countries, making it imperative for a filmmaker to be interested in entering the Hausa film market.
Culture, Religion and Censorship Challenges
However, the challenges that remain are difficult to overcome. In addition to culture, there is Islamic law in some states in the region, especially , which is the main center of Kannywood, and there is a film censorship board that monitors and censors the films that are released.
Any film that violates the board’s rules and regulations, filmmakers often face penalties, including suspensions and fines, among others.
is among the young directors in the industry who are trying to bring about change, where after including English subtitles in his films, he has now started including Arabic subtitles to reach more viewers internationally.
Filmmakers are trying to keep up with the most popular themes of Nollywood: love, revenge, betrayal, and so on.
But “anything that shows genitals and any film or program that goes against our culture and religion, we will not tolerate,” told AFP.
“Wata Shida” and the Push for Global Reach
AFP visited Ibrahim as he was filming the second season of his drama , which is about a young woman who is forced into a marriage after her father’s death.
To escape the attempted marriage, she married a man and they had an arranged marriage instead of a love marriage.
“We don’t usually see people do anything without asking their parents’ blessing,” Ibrahim said, adding that movies can be used to “discuss and solve some of life’s problems.”
, star of “Wata Shida,” said he hopes the movie will be released on major streaming platforms in the future, although the series is currently being watched on YouTube.
Most of the Nigerian movies available on and are from the south of the country, as there are not many Hausa movies.
“Southern Nigeria spends more on movies, uses more equipment, has more sponsors and investors,” said Adamu Garba.
Arewaflix and the Future of Hausa Streaming
On the other hand, , who created to showcase Hausa films like Netflix, said there could be a big change.
“But Arewaflix will not stop at Hausa films, it will include films in other northern Nigerian languages like Kanuri and Nufanci among others,” Amart said.
He added that the films will be subtitled in English, French and Arabic.
However, Arewaflix is not the first app created for this purpose, as in 2023, an attempt was also made to create the app, but it did not achieve the desired success.
However, getting people to pay to watch films in Nigeria is very difficult, especially given the poverty and economic crisis in the country.
“Once some people get the film, they download it and share it with others because of the complete protection of copyright,” said Abba.
Learning From India and Looking Ahead
The industry is currently facing many challenges, but it is still trying to recover. Still, according to , there is a need for modern equipment.
He said that if they get the equipment and investors, they have good news and professionals who will deliver good and beautiful films in Hausa without any problems.
He described how Indian films have been accepted in Nigeria even though there are those who do not speak English and Hindi, “but they enjoy what they watch.”
But now the main thing for Kannywood is: producing good films, with their own hands.
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