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Releasing films in cinemas best thing for movie production – Producer

Nollywood Film producer and actor, Kevin Ushi, on Thursday said releasing films in cinemas had been the best thing that happened to the Nollywood industry.

Nollywood Film producer and actor, Kevin Ushi, on Thursday said releasing films in cinemas had been the best thing that happened to the Nollywood industry.

Ushi, the Chief Executive Officer, Broad-Ad Productions told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that producers present their films first in cinemas so that they could recoup their investments.

“My hope is that it will be sustained and improved on as the trend has started; we need more cinemas in the country.

“After releasing films in cinemas and it will also go round some states, then it would go to cable networks for some months for the producers to still get their money back.

“It is after that, it is put in DVDs to be released in the market so that anyone can buy. It is a good thing because it will reduce piracy,’’ he said.

The film producer said that it was always good to release films in cinemas both in the country and outside the country for more gains, adding that not all productions go through cinemas.

“You have to know the quality of your film before going to the cinemas to showcase it.

“In the 1960s and 1970s, the period known as the golden era, practitioners like Hubert Ogunde and Moses Olaiya from the western part of the country gave Motion Picture Industry (MPI) a voice.

“They made good films and people trouped to the cinemas to watch their favourite movies. The cinema culture in Nigeria was huge and a paying one,’’ he said.

The CEO said that after the golden era, Nigerian film industry experienced direct-to-video film with “Living in Bondage’’ in 1992.

“It stayed till 2000 to become the second film industry in terms of the number of productions ahead of U.S. and behind India,’’ he said.

Ushi, however, said that the Nigerian cinema underwent some restructuring to promote quality and professionalism with “The Figurine’’ in 2009 and the cinema culture picked up.

“It was a major turnaround in the contemporary Nigerian cinema which led to resurgence of the cinema culture and it led to setting up and steady return of cinemas in the country,’’ he said.

He said that as of 2013, Nigerian cinema was rated the third most valuable film industry in the world based on the revenue generated.

Ushi is a graduate of Mass Communication, of the Ogun State Polytechnic, Abeokuta. He majored in broadcasting.

He is a master Pidgin English translation and also voices in English and Igbo languages.

He trained in several stages of Radio and TV drama productions, wrote and acted in over 30 episodes of Radio Nigeria popular drama series “Grandu Street’’ since 1988.

He presented NTA 2 Channel 5 “Tele Quiz Live in 2000’’. He acted in many soap operas like “Checkmate”, “Tightrope’’, “Super Story’’, “Tinsel’’, “Zenani’’.

He was the President of Association of Voice-Over Artistes (AVOA) from 2001 to 2007.

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