Why
we must sanitise Nollywood – Garbosky
By CHRISTOPHER ORJI
Friday,
October 19, 2007
 |
Garbosky
Pix: Sun News Publishing |
| |
Gabriel Onyi Okoye, (aka) Garbosky, is a household name in
the Nigerian movie industry, popularly known as Nollywood.
Not only was he among the first movie producers who chased
away the then kingpins of motion picture in Africa such as
the Chinese and Indians, he is also a versatile entrepreneur
of rare expertise.
He became popular after producing Nneka, The Pretty Serpent,
one of the first set of movies to be prouduced in Nollywood..
Recently, Garbosky spoke with Daily Sun on
various relevant issues in Nollywood, including piracy, discipline
and proliferation among others.
Nollywood
Before 1992, there was nothing like Nollywood. What we had
then was an era of drama and soap opera. We had some interesting
drama genres such as New Masquerade, Village Headmaster, etc.
At that time, we had the popular Indian lovey-dovey films
and the Chinese Kung-fu series.
I was dealing in electronics and at the same time, dubbing
and selling those foreign films because for want of relevant
entertainment, people patronised the foreign films heavily.
That was the era when Indian films exhibited their dances,
while the Chinese thrived on kungfu and its karate chops which
were good pieces of meat to a hungry audience.
One day, I went on a business trip to Hong Kong to import
electronics and I met some Chinese film makers who were then
engaged in some recordings. They approached me to feature
in the film because they needed a black face to take up a
character. They offered me about $50. But I thought I was
bigger than $50 dollar, so I introduced two Nigerian boys
who featured in their film. Curiously, and by the special
design of God, I was able to watch them shoot the film and
I saw how they packaged it. I had a brainwave of possible
gold mine through the exercise.
I realised that when exported out of China, they would make
a lot of money on the exercise. Something just nudged me that
I could also do what they did, if not better. I thought about
it until I returned to Nigeria. Coincidentally, I met Tony
Nkiruka, a.k.a. Onwa, who brought some guys who were looking
for sponsors to produce the first Nigerian movie. Onwa introduced
Okechukwu Ogunjiofor a.k.a. Paulo and we started discussion.
He put everything in writing and I studied the whole thing.
After studying the script, I contacted a company in Hong Kong
that gave me a container of blank tapes that we used in dubbing
the film, entitled: Nneka, the Pretty Serpent. Just as we
were dubbing the film, another film, Living in Bondage stormed
the market and Nneka The Pretty Serpent promptly followed
suit.
I spent N4million on the film, but I got more than I even
expected because within one month, we had made three times
that amount. We started reaping harvest, so to say. Bumper
harvest indeed! In fact, we were smiling to the bank with
money every day. My second film, Battle of Mosanga, also enjoyed
fabulous success as it equally sold like hot cake.
Instant millionaire
When Living in Bondage and Nneka, the Pretty Serpent hit the
market; Nigerians abandoned foreign films and embraced Nollywood.
What’s more, Nollywood created opportunities for many
young and talented Nigerians, many of them graduates of Theatre
Arts to practise their profession. In fact, the movie industry
has become a big employer of labour in Nigeria today. We now
have a new culture of stars and millionaires, all thanks to
the movie industry.
Piracy
Piracy is the greatest challenge to stakeholders in the movie
industry. But there is hope that things would be better for
moviemakers. We are determined to wipe-off economic pirates.
We want government to partner with us in the fight against
piracy. They can do this by creating an enabling environment
for us to carryout strategic plans to plug the activities
of the economic hoodlums.
We need more than a stringent law to punish pirates and make
them pay compensation to owners of the work they pirate.
We are thinking along the line of standardization of product
pricing. For instance, If I spent N50 on one cassette and
I sell N60 with a view to making a profit of N10 per copy,
if the pirate sells an imported copy of a pirated work at
N40, well, we all know who the people will patronise. Of course,
the cheaper one, regardless of the poor quality. So, we are
thinking along the line of standardization of prices for Nollywood
products. Also, we are looking at meeting pirates at distribution
level. If they go to the interior, even in hamlets, Garbosky
Company will also be there. If they send it abroad, we too
will be there before them.
Now, we the moviemakers are planning a production work on
DVD and we meant to put what we call acting dubbing device
on CDs, which will only work with DVD. We are equally making
arrangement to get sponsorship from banks, using their own
devices. The government will inbuilt its crested device while
the Censor Board will also have its device in the same CD.
We will programme it such that if one of the devices is missing,
no piracy can play it, not to talk of dubbing it. If a pirate
imports the CDs, will he ask the bank to please help him put
the device or the government and the Censor Board security
check on his job. No pirate will be bold enough to do that
and eventually, piracy will be discouraged and these economic
parasites will runaway from their damaging enterprise.
Our new project
The work we have at hand now is tagged :The Nigeria Project,
meaning working with the best of Nigerians in the movie industry.
The Nigeria project and heart of Africa projects. It is in
collaboration with the Nigerian government. The government
has realised that we can use the movie to move the country
forward. The government now realises that we can model and
reshape the entire fabric of the Nigerian nation through the
movie industry.
Re-orientation of stakeholders
We, moviemakers, stars and stakeholders in the movie industry,
are coming together to tour the whole world, showcasing Nigeria
heritage and culture. We meant to tell the world that Nigeria
is not all about occult and demonic practices as most of our
films portray us. We have so many beautiful stories about
Africa and especially, Nigeria, to tell the world. Civilisation
started in Egypt, and Egypt is in Africa. This continent is
not all about dark things. Plenty of good things abound in
Africa.
Really, the few people like Kenneth Mabue, Amaka Igwe, Zeb
Ejiro, and myself were disappointed with the quality of some
of the films emanating from the Nollywood stable. People were
just producing all sorts of things, some outright insult to
viewers. We have now decided that as prime stakeholders in
the industry, we must step in to sanitize the stable. We thought
to clean the Augean stable before the film industry will collapse
totally. That is why we are standing up with resolve to save
the industry.
Sexual harassment
Actually, it is condemnable. But any producer or filmmaker,
who sleeps with any actresses, is making a great mistake.
Any producer worth the plate on which his name is written
will think twice before he takes advantage of the younger
one.
A wise saying has it that "the young shall grow."
In that belief, one day, the upcoming ones will become celebrated
stars and they will remember how you once misused your position,
how you abused and took advantage of them because they were
handicapped. What goes round comes round, so when they make
it in life, they will equally mess you up.
Speaking for myself, when we initiated Nollywood, we were
not sleeping with any of our girls. We were just interested
in creating stars of talented people. To some extent, we succeeded
without compromising our integrity and we are happier that
those that made it to prominence through us, whenever they
see us, they pay their respect in full.
|
