Veteran filmmaker, Lancelot Imausen, has said that the role Idumota, Alaba, Iweka and other early regional investors in Nollywood played should always be recognised.
Some often criticise the blocs for being overbearing in their relationship with producers while Lagos-based Alaba is also usually among the first accused of entrenched piracy.
Imausen, however, said their early investment is part of the major factors in Nollywood development.
In an interview with ‘The Nation’, the producer marking is 30th anniversary in the business, noted that the old financiers pushed the industry to the level it became attractive to corporate investors.
He noted: “Distribution has evolved from our brothers who I also want to take time to pay tribute to very profoundly, they call them the Idumota Boys, the Upper Iweka guys, the Pound Road guys then the Alaba guys. These guys did quite a lot in financing Nollywood to the level it got to before corporate financing started coming in. Between you and me, I am excited though I don’t know where it will lead us because of our attitude. All these things that are new here are things that have been everywhere else in the world.
“I can still tell you that as we speak in America and some other developed worlds, distribution in cassettes, DVDs, are still on. You don’t say because one has come the other one has to die which is a terrible thing with us. I hope we survive this. I hope we are able to manage it well so that we don’t suddenly lose everything. When the cinema came, we rushed. I opened my Youtube page in 2014. The question should be , what happened to the other one?
“I am saying that all chains of distribution should be allowed to stay. We should not kill one for another, that is what we do here. The cinemas should be running, it is not all films that are meant for the cinema. The streaming platforms are there, they should be allowed to run, it is not all films that are meant for Youtube. All these different platforms serve different purposes. The Nigerian approach should be discouraged.”
