Nigerian comedian and filmmaker, Bright Okpocha, popularly known as Basketmouth, has accused Nollywood producers of mismanaging movie production funds allocated to them by global streaming platform, Netflix.
In a recent interview on Arise TV, Basketmouth alleged that many producers misuse significant portions of the budgets provided for movie production, diverting funds for personal gain.
He revealed that only a small fraction of the money is actually spent on filmmaking, while the rest is lavished on luxury cars and houses.
He said, “When the streaming platforms came in, they gave money to these producers, and I’ll tell you point blank: these producers would take the money—$1.5 million or whatever they give them—and use about 10% of that money to make the movie.”
He claimed that streaming platforms, upon discovering these alleged malpractices, decided to pay actors directly to ensure transparency. However, according to him, producers found a way to continue their fraudulent practices by coercing actors into returning part of their pay.
“Even to the point where the streaming platforms stepped in and said, ‘You know what? We are going to be paying the actors directly,’ these guys would still go behind and tell the actors to pay half of that money back to them. You can verify the information anywhere,” he added.
The comedian argued that such mismanagement of funds has resulted in subpar Nollywood productions, with some epic films looking more like stage plays than professional productions.
He said, “So, when you do that and expect your movie to be 100%, it can’t. It’s impossible. But these guys? They’ll cut, buy houses, buy cars. And that’s why when you see our movies, some of our epic movies look like stage plays.”
(Tribune)
