Namaste Wahala: Bollywood and Nollywood by the Numbers (Part I)


Would it be out of place to say every Nigerian has seen at least one Indian film? Remember Kuchi Kuchi Hota Hai (1998), 3 Idiots (2009) Baahubali (2015). According to BellaNaija the number of Indians who watch Nollywood movies are quite small but this could be set to change with a transcontinental and cultural cinematic exchange in the works from Indian Filmmaker Hamisha Daryani Ahuja entitled Namaste Wahala. Ahead of the film's release, we have provided a comparative round-up of Nollywood and Bollywood number.

India's Bollywood
The term Bollywood was coined in the 70s, when Nasir Hussain and Salim-Javed, Masala films started gaining foreign attention. Bollywood has since been known as an umbrella term for the industry that is subdivided into several regional hubs by languages including Tollywood (Telugu films), Marathi, Bengali etc. The term Bollywood is gained popular recognition based on the fact that the majority of films are produced in Hindi's Bombay (e.g. 50.1% of 1813 feature films in 2018 were either fully or partly in Hindi).

Initially characterized for their violent action, Bollywood movies became synonymous with musical romance post-1989 with Yash Chopra's, 'Chandni'. which heavily influenced Indias cinematic formula. Today Bollywood movies are best known for combining dramatic acting with, action, comedy, romance, dance and music.

Nigeria's Nollywood
The first films distributed in Nigeria by the Colonial Film Unit (CFU) took the form of propaganda based war-related movies designed to propagate British imperialism by convincing Nigerians of a German enemy during WW1. With the 1960 establishment of Federal Film Unit (FFU) films became tool by which to teach Nigeria’s history.

From Sam Zebba's "Fincho" (1957) and Hubert Ogunde's ''Aiye'' (1979), then Wale Adenuga's blockbuster ''Papa Ajasco'' (1984), to the renaissance Living In Bondage (1992) produced by Okechukwu Ogunjiofor and today's reinvented storytellers like Kunle Afolayan whose 2006 ''Irapada'' became the first Nollywood film to be shown in a modern cinema. These productions represent crucial turning points for the Nigerian cinema.


2018 Movie Output
In 2018 Nollywood recorded barely above 1000 movie releases according to a growth projection analysis while approximately releasing 25 movies a month. According to the Filmmakers Cooperative of Nigeria, every film in Nigeria has a potential audience of 15 million people in Nigeria and about 5 million outside Nigeria, meaning even at the current declining rate of 25 movies a month compared to 50 movies a week in 2016, an average Nigerian filmmaker can barely reach just 30% of Nigeria's estimated 200m population.

Meanwhile its Indian counterpart with a production output of 1813 feature films in 2018, reportedly releasing 40 movies a month with a billion population has a potential 60m audience per movie while still reaching more than 50m foreigners according to Statista. One of the main reasons for such a high number of films produced in India every year is the large market readily available. Nigeria might boast of the population but not in comparison to India's 1 billion, meaning a larger market and a higher chance of investment.

Revenue each year
In 2018, according to Statista, Indias 2018n box office revenue amounted totalled N622 billion naira ($1.7 billion)[Statista] and is it is estimated to reach up to N1.5 trillion naira ($4.2 billion) by the end of the year 2024, almost 94% of its revenue came from domestic theatrical revenues, worth almost N548 billion naira ($1,5 billion). Recording a 15.3 per cent growth in revenue compared to its previous year. The industry was valued at N933 billion naira ($2.5 billion) as of 2018.

Meanwhile according to NFVCB Nigeria's Nollywood is valued at N690 billion naira ($2 billion). In 2018, Nigerian box office revenue was reportedly at N4.3292 billion naira ($12800 million), according to Statista. With projection to reach N6.210.9 trillion naira ($1730 billion USD) by 2030.

Contribution to Countries GDP
According to a TheBalance report by Kimberly Amadeo, In 2016, Bollywood contributed N1.644 trillion naira ($4.5 billion) 16.5% to India's GDP [The Balance], while its Nigerian counterpart reportedly contributed N239 billion (653 million USD) 2.3% to Nigeria's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) in 2016. These industries have both proven to be crucial parts of both nation's economies. Nollywood and Bollywood's GDP contributions are both projected to reach N10.9 trillion naira ($30 billion) and N18.2 trillion naira ($50 billion) respectively in Fiscal year 2030 according to Statista.

Cast and Crew diversity
In both Nigeria and India's film industries, more than 2000 production companies exist with just a few notable (popular) names. Corporate and individuals shoot movies in local and foreign languages. Their international successes are an example that people of different cultures have a desire to know, learn and understand those different from theirs.

To fuse a growing foreign appetite for Nollywood, the likes of Emem Isong's "Ayamma" (2018), Kunle Afolayan's October 1 (2014), Steve Gukas' "93 days" (2016) and Biyi Bandele's "Half Of A Yellow Sun" were shot by a mixture of foreign and local cast and crew from United State and United Kingdom. Bollywood films have displayed great diversity but just like it Nigerian counterpart, it seems to only boost of about 1% foreign diversification TheBalance report says.

Number of Screens in Both Countries by Population
In 2018 PVR Cinemas, a single exhibition company PVR Cinemas owned 727 screens across India [ATLAS]. India has over 13,000 screens nationwide with 10,000 single screens and 3,000 multiplex screens [FORBES] with an average screen ratio of 1 screen per 96,307 people despite India's large population of 1.2b. This figure dwarfs Nigeria's 1 screen per 1.5m people, with a total number of 130 screens across 45 cinemas serving a population of 200 million. [UNESCO]


That is saying, Nigeria's entire 200m population is just about 30% of India's 1.2b. Meaning if India had only 200m people going by their current number of screens, India's screen ratio would be 1 screen per 15,384 people that is a 60% drop from it current ratio gap, which is almost equivalent to United States' 1 screen per 7,142 people with 40,575 screens for a country of 327.2m people, according to a World Bank 2018 population report.

Movie Distribution
Bollywood has over 100 licensed distributors. The largest 4 distribution companies include Mohabbatein , Dil Chahta and Chennai Express control 60% market share.

Bollywood's distribution chain differs from Nollywood in that typically each movie producer sources her/his budget, shoots a movie and sells the cinema right to a theatre distributor for an upfront payment. The distributor, in turn, promotes the movie from her/his pocket and shares 50/50 revenue with exhibitors.

There are advantages and disadvantages to this model. For instance, a distributor buys a film for N15 million Naira from a producer whose production budget was N7 million naira now has N8 million naira interest. Then, she or he spends another N6 million Naira on promoting the film nationwide, making the distributors total investment of N21 million naira.
After a month run the film makes N40 million naira in cinemas, the distributor collects N20 million naira been 50% of her or his share of the revenue. Producer smiles to the bank, while the distributor is at N1 million naira lost.


Turn the table around where the same movie hit N200 million naira in cinemas, the producer loses from the bigger pie while the distributor gains. In Nigeria's Nollywood, both parties share whatever, however. The likes of FilmOne, Blue Pictures and Silverbird control more than 65% of Nigeria's budding cinema distribution industry. While both distribution styles might be favourable and unfavourable at some points, it evident that healthy competition is good for growth. Is it possible to try a similar competitive film distribution in Nigeria?

*The concluding part of this article will be publish next month April 29th (Wednesday) 2020.
*All dollar calculations are 361 to a naira as at 11th March, 2020.

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