Pirates in Lagos, western Nigeria, have started feasting
on multi-million dollar Half of A Yellow Sun, a film that has been
described as a landmark in the evolution of the Nigerian film industry.
The
movie still showing at Nigerian cinemas has been pirated with thousands
of its bootleg DVD copies already being hawked and sold for as low as
N150 (about $1) a copy on the streets of Lagos.
P.M.NEWS correspondents
observed that the pirated DVD copies of the acclaimed movie are being
brazenly hawked in the traffic in Lekki; Maryland; Agidingbi, Ikeja and
other major Lagos streets.
“It is tragic that such a
film with huge investment could be subjected to such barbaric act in its
home country. This is a serious breach of our copyright and it is very
sad not for us alone but the Nigerian movie industry as a whole,” Moses
Babatope, an executive with The Film One Distribution, the sole
distributor of Half of A Yellow Sun in Nigeria, told P.M.NEWS.
A scene from Half Of A Yellow Sun
According
to Babatope, “we have already taken steps to deal with this issue by
forwarding our petition to the Inspector General of Police and the
Censors Board so as to take action and even criminalise it should anyone
be caught with the pirated copy.”
Half of A Yellow
Sun, is the most expensive Nigerian film since the emergence of the
phenomenal Nollywood. Its production gulped over $10 million (N1.6
billion) and was largely financed by private funds raised by Yewande
Sadiku, CEO, Stanbic-IBTC Capital Limited, who also doubles as the
film’s executive producer.
The investment banker, P.M.NEWS
learnt, also got a loan from the $200 million Entertainment
Intervention Fund of the Nigerian Creative and Entertainment Industry
Stimulation Loan Scheme, NCEILS, run by the Bank of Industry in Nigeria,
before the movie could be completed.
It was premiered
at the 38th annual Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF) in 2013.
The film also screened at other international film festivals with both
public and private premieres in the UK and Nigeria, followed by
commercial screenings at cinemas in the UK and other few western
countries.
The film was also released on DVD for UK market after its cinema screening was closed in the country.
The
public screening was controversially delayed for months in Nigeria by
the National Film and Video Censors Board, NFVCB until mid-July when it
got the much awaited approval among 77 movies and rated “18”.
But
following months of delays by Nigeria’s Censors Board, the movie
illegally found its way into the internet when it was posted on YouTube
and later dubbed into CD and DVD copies by pirates who are now hawking
them on streets of Lagos.
This has fuelled fears that
the producers may not recoup their investment. But Babatope allayed the
fears, saying “Half of A Yellow Sun’ is doing well right now at the
cinemas. While I will not want to reveal to you the figure, it is very
encouraging as the film is topping the box office record. And it’s on
its third week,” he said.
Babatope thus called on
Nigerians to shun the pirates and troop out to the cinemas to see the
movie so as to encourage more investment in the film industry.
“The
Nigerian film industry has been grappling with the issue of piracy for
years but to now have such an important film like Half of A Yellow Sun
considered the most expensive Nigerian film ever made, fall victim to
piracy before its even released properly in Nigeria, is another harsh
reminder of the size of the piracy problem in Nollywood. The issue may
be so widespread now that it will be difficult to imagine any real
positive progress in the short term,” he said
Half of a
Yellow Sun is an adaption of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie’s award-winning
international novel of the same title. The movie set in the Biafran war
era in Nigeria, focuses on love, lust, jealousy, greed and brings to
light the effects of war on the lives of everyone it touches.
Written
and directed by Biyi Bandele, Half of a Yellow features Oscar nominee
Chiwetel Ejiofor, Thandie Newton, Anika Noni Rose, Onyeka Onwenu,
Genevieve Nnaji, O.C. Ukeje and Zack Orji.
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