Web series movies are gradually taking over the Hausa films industry popularly known as Kannywood. Cinemas that were hitherto thought to be the best alternative to save the industry from dwindling CD market has not paid off. Checks by Daily Trust Saturday revealed that the highest grossing movie in Kannywood is Aisha.
Daily Trust Saturday reported that the movie is presently the biggest Kannywood grosser of all time, with a net gross of 5,641,000 in Bayero Mall Cinema, Kano, alone. It was produced by Abubakar Bashir Maishadda and directed by a veteran, Hafiz Bello.
The movie is centred on youthful exuberance and excesses, rape, drug addiction and the rest in a university setting.
Over time, the Hausa movie industry has had many developments, changes and metamorphosis that affected the industry either positively or negatively.
The major factor that has been affecting the industry is copyright, which negatively affected the industry so much that it crippled the industry.
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When Filmhouse Cinema Limited opened in 2015 at Ado Bayero Mall and signed Ali Nuhu as its brand ambassador, stakeholders in the industry thought their problem was over.
Many Kannywood actors joined politics during the campaign processes of 2015, with many of them saying they joined politics to help get the industry back on its toes.
Daily Trust Saturday reported how instead of positively affecting the industry, politics tore the industry apart with many allegations of persecution due to political differences.
Findings by Daily Trust Saturday, however, revealed that the COVID-19 pandemic, which shut down cinemas across the world, triggered a surge in online movie streaming.
With many producers on hiatus, ‘Izzar So’, produced by Lawan Ahmed, became very popular, gaining more than a million views in some weeks releases.
All major producers now on YouTube
After the success of ‘Izzar so’ many producers started producing web series on YouTube.
The movie presently showing in Kano Film House Cinema is ‘Body Guard’ which premiered two weeks ago, and has so far garnered 2,516,500 views.
Some Kannywood producers using YouTube to showcase their content presently include Abubakar Bashir Maishadda, Abdul Amart Maikwashewa, Naziru Dan Hajiya, Alhaji Sheshe and several others.
Maishadda is the producer of ‘Dan Jarida’ series showing on Arewa24 and on his YouTube channel. Abdul Amart is also the producer of ‘Manyan Mata’ also showing on Arewa24 and on his YouTube channel.
Naziru Dan Hajiya also produced ‘Ke duniya’ and ‘Mai unguwa’ web series that is showing only on YouTube channel and Alhaji Sheshe’s ‘Mafita’ will soon be premiered.
Daily Trust Saturday reliably gathered that many movies produced long ago will be aired on YouTube by the producers instead of the cinemas.
Bin Ali movie was produced about three years ago by Abdul Amart Maikwashewa, but has only been scheduled to be premiered on YouTube today Saturday, May 13 by 8.30pm.
Ali Nuhu, who is the ambassador of the Film House Cinema, has also produced a web series, ‘Alaqa’ which is presently on break after Season 3.
The major Kannywood films that are the talk of the town presently are series such as Alaqa, Manyan Mata, Dan Jarida, Labarina, Na Ladidi and many more.
Web series alone are not enough -Producer
Reacting to this new trend, popular Kannywood producer Naziru Dan Hajiya, who produced popular web series like ‘Ke duniya’ and ‘Mai unguwa’, told Daily Trust Saturday that the web series are undeniably helping the industry to stay afloat, but are not enough.
“If you have a good series, people will watch it and you will get good result. If you see a web series continued with season 2 and even season 3, it shows that there was positive result from viewers. That means the producer is getting what he wants.”
On if web series alone can help hold the industry, he said, “It is not enough. Showing movies on YouTube alone is not enough. We need to advance and explore marketing strategy to market our movies and compete with other film industries. There are many platforms that give better money to movies such as Netflix and others, and surprisingly, they want our content, but unfortunately, we are not the ones doing the movies for them; it is producers from other parts of the country that use some of us to get our content and use them. But we are on the course of doing the needful. Very soon, we will get there and start competing with other film industries in the world. We have real and original contents that are far better than many contents we have been seeing flying. So, I think we can do better than what we are doing. It is just a matter of time.”
Also reacting on the future of Kannywood, Ali Nuhu in an interview with BBC Hausa, applauded the industry stakeholders for their perseverance.
He said, “The industry is always making progress. There are many changes. Now, Netflix and Amazons are setting eyes on Hausa movies. Had it been we didn’t endure, we wouldn’t have reached this level. Another thing is that we have new faces in the industry and that is a plus to the industry. We can now boast of what is obtainable in the industry worldwide since we have a similar thing in Kannywood because the platforms I mentioned have better structures.”
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