Producer Parminder Vir is an Indian in love with Nollywood. Vir
not only rates Nollywood highly, she also believes there is a relationship
between Nigeria’s popular indigenous movie industry and Bollywood. “The film
industry and film as a culture is a meeting point. It is the only medium other
than music that enables people to meet across cultures, national boundaries and
languages. Film is an emotional medium and if we are telling universal stories,
it doesn’t matter where you are. Absolutely, there is a meeting point between
Hollywood, Bollywood, Nollywood and any other film industry in the world. [In
2008], I came and we talked about the European film industry and what Nollywood
can teach them or learn from them; about how we in Europe have a structured
film industry. So, yes of course, there is a meeting point.”
Strategic project
As part of her resolve to ensure cooperation between both
industries, the expert in international film finance, co-productions and film
distribution was in Nigeria last December for the ION International Film
Festival. She was the programme consultant for the ‘Connecting Bollywood and
Nollywood’ session which involved Indian and Nigerian filmmakers during the
festival. The producer of award winning ‘Single Voices’ says of the initiative.
“I think the project is really strategic. It’s not a single film project that
would happen depending on the quality or structure of the project. I am much
more interested in the strategic relationships and alliances because the film
industry is a business, it’s not a lifestyle. And ultimately, the film industry
contributes phenomenally to the economy and culture of the country.
“Here in Nigeria, I think there is a lot that Nollywood can
learn on how the partnership between the Indian government, the Indian film
industry and the private sector was forged. They were able to attract foreign
direct investment, direct investors from within the country and government
support for the industry. That is exactly the position that Nollywood needs to
be; where it can get the government, the industry itself, producers and
distributors, exhibitors and the private sector to come together to develop a
strategy which serves the film industry as an important sector of the economy.”
Hit or miss medium
The 2002 recipient of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) for
her contributions to TV and film in the UK also recommends ‘pre sale’ to Nigerian
producers as a way of getting money to make films. “Distribution in the
European and Indian model, what you have is presale. You go to the distributor
and say I want to make this film; this is the subject and the audience it is
targeted at. This is how much I think we will make once the film is made and it
is sold as a VCD or whatever revenue stream you want to explore. So, pre sale
means you have pre-sold your film and someone believes in your story to be able
to advance you money against what they think they will make. And if they make
more than what they expect the film would make, they would benefit from the
success of the film. If it doesn’t, they would have to deal with the
consequences from the loss of the film as well.”
Though not a bad suggestion, I cite examples of Nigerian
producers who pre-sold movies which later became very successful but got
nothing from the distributor. What happens to such producers in such
situations?
“People not honouring contracts, that happens all the time
because film is a hit or miss medium. You have hits and misses but neither the
producer who took his product to the distributor nor the distributor knew the
film could perform beyond what they thought it could. If it does, for me, the
distributor took the risk by pre-buying the film. But then, I would like to
think that the distributor is in this industry for a long time. So, the
distributor should be able to go back to the producer and say ‘hey, what’s your
next film? Let me sign you up for your next three films. This is how much I can
bring to the table.’ And the producer should get smart and say ok, ‘I would
also want to share in the next profit.’ So, it’s important to locate the film
beyond the box office to say I want to also negotiate a net profit corridor. The
problem is that producers always need money to make film, so they don’t think
that this film could be a hit and beyond this, it could have a long term
because people could still go on either renting or purchasing through different
medium.”
Distribution is the
future
Unlike in Nigeria, Western filmmakers have shifted focus from
production to distribution in a bid to make more money. The chief executive of
PVL Media Consultant suggests the same for players in Nollywood. “I think it
would be a wrong strategy to continue to pour money into production without
having the means of monetizing that production. You also need to diversify your
revenue stream. At the moment, it is only retail that is dominant here but you
have to diversify your revenue streams. You have theatrical, TV, retail which
is your normal DVD and the international market as well. Within television,
you’ve got pay TV.
” I also think you have to make a distinction now between those
who really make television and those who aspire to be filmmakers and cinematic
storytellers. I think there is a big difference between the cinema as a medium
and film as a medium. I would also think that in order for you to exploit the
revenue from theatrical ticket sales, you’ve got to put in place digital
exhibitions because that’s the way the world is going. The reason why we in the
UK are focusing on distribution is because digital distribution, for us, is the
future. So, we need to look at how do we monetise our film? How do we monetise
it online? How do we monetise the different digital platforms?”
Born in India but moving to the UK at age 10, Vir crossed into film from
being a Television documentary producer. She went into TV and film because “I
wanted to tell stories and I wanted to give a voice to the voiceless. In the
UK, I wanted to basically have storytellers that came from the so called ethnic
minority communities.” She describes her over 20 years experience in film and
television production, media finance and business development in emerging
markets as a “challenge” but adds “I think it’s such a privilege and an honour
to work in film and television industry.”
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