Welcome to 'Nollywood': Nigerian film industry entices Hollywood stars

First there was Hollywood, then came Bollywood and today we have Nollywood: the second largest film industry in the world.

Indeed, it was in 2009 that Nigeria's pulsating film industry, Nollywood, officially overtook Hollywood as the second largest film producer in the world, according to a survey conducted by the UNESCO Institute for Statistics (UIS). Bollywood, the Mumbai-based movie industry, retains first position.

In 2011 alone around 2,000 movies were made in Nigeria. That is a staggering 40 films churned out each week. Nollywood films, unlike Hollywood blockbusters, are produced on a shoestring budget, with an average production taking just 10 days and costing between $10,000 and $15,000.

Some estimates put the value of the industry at $250 million. Plus, the films are increasingly popular in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean and more recently in North America. In the States, viewers can now watch Nollywood and other West African movies on the TV channel, Afrotainment.

It is this growing global market that has encouraged A-list Hollywood actors to start associating with Nollywood. Nigerian director, Jeta Amata's latest movie, Black Gold (2011), set in the Niger Delta, for instance, parades a high number of Tinseltown actors, including the likes of Vivica A. Fox, Hakeem Kae-Kazim, Tom Sizemore and Michael Madsen.

Black-American Hollywood actress, Kimberly Elise, has also caught the African bug. Last year she was cast in Ties That Binds (2011), a film by acclaimed Ghanaian film director Leila Djansi, which went on to scoop up numerous awards on the continent.

"This is the first time in history that Africans have complete control of a cinematic medium," says Franco Sacchi, director of a documentary titled, This is Nollywood, which follows Nigerian filmmaker Bond Emeruwa's quest to make a feature-length action film in just nine days.

"They make the movies without foreign investment or government aid and don't have to report to anyone, except themselves and their audiences," says Sacchi. "It has created thousands if not tens of thousands of jobs and the industry is expanding."

The average Nigerian film is very much rooted in local concerns and the storylines are relatable, which contributes to its populist appeal, adds Sacchi, who was born in Zambia and raised in Italy. He is now based in Boston.