A video clip posted tonight by Fim magazine, the Hausa film industry’s leading news publication, has shown where Nigerian director Prince Daniel says he was rejected by both Kannywood and Nollywood in the early days of his movie career because of his religion and region.
This is coming a few hours after the award-winning director of Mai Martaba, Nigeria’s official entry in this year’s Academy Awards, issued a strongly worded disclaimer against the story.
In his rejoinder, the director emphasised that the comment he made in the U.S. was on the segmentation of the Nigerian film industry between Kannywood (North) and Nollywood (South).
He said: “At some point, the Kannywood segment of the industry seemed to view us as Nollywood, while Nollywood also saw us as Kannywood, simply because I am from the North.
“This explanation was made with the best of intentions—to help the audience in the room understand the segmentation of the industry in Nigeria and how challenging it was for us at the time.
“I believe this comment was grossly misunderstood. For clarity, Kannywood has never rejected me on the basis of ethnicity or religion. In fact, it has been my greatest pillar of support as a filmmaker.”
However, in the video clip obtained by Fim, Daniel, also known as Aboki, is seen being interviewed on his epic film as part of the “Nollywood in Hollywood” film festival held earlier this month in Los Angeles, California, USA.
Asked in front of an audience to relate the kind of challenges he faced while making his film in northern Nigeria, the director, who hails from the North-east, answered:
“Yes so, a lot of it. I mentioned somewhere that as a filmmaker I got trapped during this production, trapped because I’m from the North, northern part of Nigeria, but I am Christian, and the Kannywood is a predominantly Muslim industry. And the Nollywood part of the industry is predominantly Christian. So, I became trapped because at some point the Kannywood didn’t quite accept me because of religion, and Nollywood didn’t accept me because of region.
“So, this side sees me as a Christian practising — from the Kannywood side of the industry — and then the other side sees me as a Northerner practising in Nollywood.
“So, but the dynamics changed when the film eventually got selected to represent Nigeria at this year’s Oscars. Everything changed.”
The video clip, which is obtainable on YouTube, will help explain what Prince Daniel actually said as published by some Nigerian online newspapers, including Pulse and New Citizen.
See the video below:
