(By Dr. Tunji Olaopa) - "There is no doubt that today,
Nollywood has become a national brand. It has become the foremost signifier of
our cinematic energy as a creative people. Nollywood began small, but today it
has become a huge contributor to the national economy. In the recent GDP
rebasing exercise, Nollywood contributed 1.2% to the national economy. If that
appears little, then you have no knowledge of where and how Nollywood began.
Its beginning is founded on a shoestring budget and a creative ingenuity of a
few entrepreneurs who had to face commercial risk and cinematic scorn to
achieve their objectives. If you want an exact date for the beginning of
Nollywood, scholars point at Kenneth Nnebue’s 1992 movie, Living in Bondage.
Today, Nollywood has achieved global reckoning by its sheer capacity to
proliferate beyond all its economic, political and social limitations.
Nollywood is second only to Hollywood in global entertainment ranking; Bollywood,
the Indian film industry, has since been displaced to third place.
