Comedian and filmmaker Basketmouth, also known as Bright Okpocha, has accused Nollywood producers of mishandling funds from global streaming platforms.
In a recent interview on Arise TV, he claimed that producers often use only a small percentage of movie budgets for production, diverting the rest for personal use.
Basketmouth also stated that some producers are now demanding actors return half of their pay, as streaming platforms have started paying actors directly to avoid dishonest practices.
He said:
“When the streaming platforms came in, they gave money to these producers, and I’ll tell you point blank: these producers would take the money $1.5 million or whatever they give them and use about 10% of that money to make the movie.”
“Even to the point where the streaming platforms stepped in and said, ‘You know what? We are going to be paying the actors directly,’ these guys would still go behind and tell the actors to pay half of that money back to them. You can verify the information anywhere.”
He argued that the fraudulent practice has taken a serious toll on the quality of Nollywood films. He added:
“So, when you do that and expect your movie to be 100%, it can’t. It’s impossible. But these guys? They’ll cut, buy houses, buy cars. And that’s why when you see our movies, some of our epic movies look like stage plays.”
These allegations come after filmmaker Kunle Afolayan revealed that Netflix has stopped commissioning Nigerian original content, which could have a significant impact on producers who invest heavily in filmmaking.
