Bright Okpocha, often known as Basketmouth, a comedian turned filmmaker, has accused Nollywood producers of excessively mismanaging funds granted by worldwide streaming companies.
In a recent interview on Arise TV, Basketmouth asserted that many producers allocate as little as 10% of their budget for filmmaking, using the remaining funds to cover their personal expenses.
He asserted that in order to avoid dishonest producers, streaming services finally began paying performers directly.
The stand-up comedian went on to say that producers supposedly get around it by asking actors to give back half of their salary. Basketmouth stated:
“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.”
