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Tunde Kelani’s
film, ‘Arugba’ is to go on general release later this month. The
filmmaker made the announcement at a press conference held at his
Mainframe production company offices in Oshodi, Lagos, on Tuesday, June
1. Also in attendance were Nollywood insiders including ‘Jenifa’
actress, Funke Akindele (who stars in Kelani’s next film, ‘Maami’);
veteran Yoruba genre actor, Charles Olumo (a.k.a Agbako); Biodun
Kupoluyi, publisher of E24-7 magazine; production designer Bola Bello
and Bukola Awoyemi (who plays the lead in ‘Arugba’).

The presence of
Olumo inspired some reminiscing on the part of Kelani, who praised ‘Oga
Charles’ as one of those who raised him up. Olumo, I-Sho [Pepper, a.k.a
Isola Ogunsola] and others used to come and stage plays at Abeokuta
Grammar School, where Kelani was a student. The young man saw the
famous actors and dreamt of joining them one day. Now the two men are
collaborators. Olumo soaked in Kelani’s praises and prayers with
humility, his bashfulness belying the fierceness of his onscreen
persona.

The good

“It has been quite
a while that we sat like this together to discuss issues, due to so
many factors; some bad, some good,” said Kelani. The good news is that,
after a successful run of major international film festivals including
Ouagadougou, New York and Rotterdam, ‘Arugba’ will finally be available
for purchase by the Nigerian public. Set against the backdrop of a
corrupt society seeking rebirth, ‘Arugba’ tells the story of romance
between a fictional votary maiden of Osun festival and the young dancer
who loves her. The film’s journey to general release has taken two
years, partly due to the festival run. It was also screened recently at
the Odeon Greenwich in London, in a show that reassured Mainframe of
“viable opportunities of breakthrough to mainstream distribution in
Europe and America.”

The bad

It has been far
from plain sailing, however. The good news quickly dovetailed into the
bad, as Kelani revealed that the release of ‘Arugba’ had to be
postponed three times because of the heavy piracy of his films by a
gang operating from the notorious Alaba Market in Lagos. Recalling
Moses Olaiya’s claim that his career was ruined by the piracy of just
one film, Kelani revealed the extent of his own ordeal: “What we have
suffered within the last nine months is that all our works were pirated
at the same time and distributed extensively.”

The director, who
has taken to buying pirated copies of his film as evidence, displayed
an array of the exhibits, to gasps of astonishment from those present.
Exclusively ‘Mainframe’ packages contain up to 16 pirated Kelani films
on a single disc, including ‘Agogo Eewo’, ‘Saworo Ide’, ‘Abeni’ and ‘O
Le Ku’. Kelani said, “Benefactors had to come to our rescue because the
business was destroyed. My career was threatened. There was no place to
turn. We couldn’t do any film. We couldn’t even pay our rent. I
couldn’t pay taxes because they just hijacked all of the Mainframe
films at the same time. We have no income of any sort.”

He left no one in
doubt of the siege laid on him by pirates. “I’m telling you, this
threatened us completely, to the roots. The company would have been
wiped off, because if you have 12 products and all of them are pirated
at the same time, you can imagine how devastating that would be.”

The ugly

The revelations
led to animated discussion, with many sharing their own observations
about the impunity of pirates. One journalist recalled a hair-raising
incident in the den of Alaba gangsters that shot at him and his
colleagues. Another person said the kingpin lives like a president, and
outsiders are scanned before entering his office. The picture was
painted of formidable organised crime against the movie industry, and
Malaysians are alleged to be involved in the racket, providing the
technology for piracy. The situation leads to a feelings of desperation
and helplessness in filmmakers. One Yoruba film producer apparently
bribes the police to raid pirates and keep the proceeds for themselves.
Others say bribes incentives for the police to raid criminal gangs will
not work; whatever the amount, the pirates can double it. In any case,
the police seem to work on the premise that piracy is a given. As for
the Nigerian Copyright Commission (NCC), they are not averse to
demanding up to 1.7m naira from self-funded filmmakers to carry out
raids.

Bad for the industry

“The industry is
in the hands of the pirates, the rest of us only have distribution
licences,” said Kelani. He disclosed that piracy has made it difficult
to raise funds for Mainframe’s next film. Holding up the pirated
copies, the director said, “No investor, seeing this, is going to put
money in the industry. The success of Indian cinema is that it is
supported at home. Our own is exploited.” Nigerian films are just as
aggressively pirated for overseas markets. “You can imagine what is
going to happen in Europe, the UK once we release Arugba, what is going
to happen in America.” The filmmaker has alerted the authorities to
pirate attacks on his work and has provided samples to relevant
government agencies, including the British government.

Piracy, he
stressed, is the main challenge facing the Nigerian film industry. “How
can we continue? How can we get funding for the industry? With all this
(piracy) in a country like Nigeria, believe me, there is no hope for
the industry,” he declared. Biodun Kupoluyi suggested that marketers
compound the piracy situation by selling films for as low as N300. “If
you want to raise the standard, raise the price,” said Kupoluyi, who
also advocated more advertising by filmmakers as a way of sensitising
the public to recognise original copies. Kelani also reminded that
Mainframe films are always available: “You can walk in and buy.”

Risky business

To encourage the
viewing public to buy original copies of ‘Arugba’, Mainframe is paying
particular attention to the price. Special packs of the film will be
available for sale at the launch for N1,000. He is also taking his case
directly to the public. “I have no choice. I am going to go on TV and
other media and appeal to everybody to please buy the original copy and
ignore [fakes],” said Kelani. He maintained that piracy affects
everybody indirectly, as there is no value in the fake copy.

“We are going to
be pirated,” he said of the imminent release of Arugba, but he is going
ahead. “It’s a risk because we are already boxed in. We don’t have an
income. We have a project we invested 15, 20 million naira in;
everybody’s been waiting.” He also needs money to continue his next
project, ‘Maami’. The director said, “We have no choice but to comply
with what the law says as to releasing films, because we’ve worked with
all the agencies to make sure. But the point is: who is going to
protect us?”

‘Arugba’ will be
launched on Sunday, June 13 (2pm) at Etal Hall, Simbiat Abiola Road,
Oregun, Ikeja, Lagos. It goes on general release on January 14.