Nigeria’s Nollywood is the second largest movie industry in the world in terms of output, trailing Bollywood in India. America’s Hollywood is third, but the richest.
That is one side of the story.
Another side of tinsel is that from Mexico to The Philippines, telenovelas devise effective strategies to grab mass audiences across the globe. Millions are attracted. The magic comes in plots, in twists, plus beautiful casts.
Special Correspondent, Fatima Muktar, speaks to Nigerians in on the act and examines the impact on emotions, lifestyles. Nollywood too bears its mind.
Nigerian movies and soaps are losing relevance in many homes. Telenovela, a Latin American drama, provides cheap entertainment, stimulates fantasy, passion, and relaxes viewers.
Core fans do not miss any episode. The scripts are crafted in a manner that steams them up, becoming an unalterable aspect of their lives.
Diehard football fans jettison match broadcasts for favourite telenovelas.
“The plots can be intoxicating, igniting discussion among people of various classes, and even argument on social media.
“When an episode reaches a particular height, creating suspense that arouses its viewers, another suspense sets in again in a fantastic way.
“I go as far as buying fuel when there is power outage to ensure I do not miss any episode,” says Ibrahim Muktar, a telenovela fan.
But the magnetising effect results in docility, notes Esther Aaron, a mass communication graduate of the University of Maiduguri (UNIMAID).
“Docility is the setback of these telenovelas. Viewers, especially women, have burnt their dinner or lunch watching them. They steal away time that would have being used productively for house chores.”
There is not much difference in content between telenovelas and Nigerian soaps and movies. Both are dominated by melodrama, aspiration, and sentimental art which could include vulgar show of a flamboyant lifestyle – dotted with sex appeal.
What makes the difference is production. Critics accuse Nollywood of churning out low quality movies, whereas telenovelas are produced with state of the art equipment.
The history
The first recorded telenovela was Mexico’s The Price of the Sky in 1959. At the end of the 1960s, a Peruvian series Simplemente Maria moved the public so much that when the fictional Maria got married in a church in Lima, 10,000 people showed up to wish her well.
The Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) introduced telenovela into this country in the early 1990s with The Rich Also Cry. It went viral.
Viewers were glued to their sets. In homes, offices, markets, saloons, restaurants, and hospitals. It was the talking point.
The Rich Also Cry, a Mexican series, was shot in 1979.
The plot: Poor Mariana marries into money. She and her husband, Luis, have a child, Beto, who is given away. They adopt a daughter, Marisabel. Beto and Marisabel grow up, meet, and start a relationship.
The Rich Also Cry was a massive global success. It was so popular in the Caucasus that it caused a temporary ceasefire during the Georgian/Abkhazian war, as the soldiers took time off to watch it.
Its commercial success led the NTA to air other soaps like No One But You, Secret Of The Sand, and the famous When You Are Mine which features two lovebirds, Diego and Paloma.
Telenovelas went off the air in the mid-1990s. It resurfaced in the 2000s.
The plot
Televovela weaves intriguing plots. Critics say the beginning, middle or end tell unrealistic stories.
“Amazingly, every subplot though unrealistic is garnished with recurrent themes of love, jealousy, tragedy and betrayal. There is always a clearly defined protagonist and antagonist, which are all tied up in the final episodes,” notes a review in the Telegraph in the United Kingdom.
More than any other drama genre, telenovelas are reactive to viewers’ tastes, the review says.
“Episodes are recorded only about 20 in advance, so plots can be changed and characters introduced or killed off depending on public opinion. Baddies can become goodies and vice versa.”
The money
Telenovela spins money. It charges up to $100,000 for every episode shown overseas.
The UK Telegraph reports that any artiste whose song is featured in a bestselling telenovela becomes an instant celebrity, with the compilation of CDs selling in hundreds of thousands of copies.
Why Nigerians love it
Nigerians fall over themselves for the telenovela. And television channels rake in advertising revenues.
“Television is all about vision and sounds, so if viewers see something visually enticing, something really nice, it keeps going on in the senses and Nigerians love trending things,” explains Grace Edwin-Okon, an actress.
“Nigerians somehow like love stories and most of these telenovelas are love stories. Life in the country is so hard and you are dealing with so many things, so you just need to relax. People just take to telenovelas.”
She warns, however, that telenovelas could kill locally produced movies if there are no restrictions.
“If agencies are going into this content, the telenovelas, then we have no reason to produce films. And when we don’t produce films, our labour market suffers, leading to unemployment.
“The Nigerian Broadcasting Commission (NBC) and other regulatory bodies should make sure that there are restrictions on the amount of content so that we can have a space to produce our content.”
Aaron says even those with little grasp of English are hooked on the telenovela.
Her words: “Every telenovela viewer in any country has an aspiration for fantasies to a large extent, and tries to balance between the negative and positive impact of these telenoveas.
“To my surprise even our househelp who does not understand English language loves to watch telenovelas for its incredibly good looking cast.
“I prefer Mexican telenovelas because they use competent cast who play competent roles, unlike the Filipinos who use children to play adult roles.”
Amnah Jajere, a graduate of mass communication notes that “telenovelas have a sure way of displaying fantasies, as no episode ends without a shot of kiss; in fact their costumes are crazily gorgeous, making some of us wanting to mimic the dresses of our favourite cast.
“I watch any genre, whether melodrama, comedy, magical adventure, or thriller. Telenovelas just showcase amazing sets in each scene that reflects every mood.
“Its sparkling and captivating environment is simply eye-catching.”
Sakina Mahdi, a zoologist, also cited the captivating storyline.
“It keeps me sucked into each scene until the very end,” she says.
“They try to ground a storyline and make it realistic, even though it is unrealistic in real life situations, making viewers fantasise.
“Unfortunately, even children below the age of 18 are glued to television screens to watch these telenovelas with their families or neighbours.
“This could affect the moral of an African child. This could crash. It is never a plus for proper upbringing.”
What’s wrong with local movies, soaps?
Even with the influx of the telenovela, Lilian Amah-Aluko, an actress and producer, argues that it has not affected the sales volume of Nigerian movies.
“We are still making sales,” she told TheNiche.
Zik Okafor, a producer, also confirms that telenovelas do not affect the sale of local movies, but warns that with women getting addicted to them and having less time to watch Nollywood movies, they would not buy local movies at all or buy less.
Yet, Eric Aghimien, a producer, beats his chest that Nigerian soaps can compete.
“We have everything it takes to build ours. Fine, we could watch other series from other countries.
“When I did A Mile From Home it came out fairly well, winning about 14 awards and also encouraging great writers not to relent but continue striving hard,” he says.
“Gorilla filmmakers are all over the world, you don’t need money to do everything. It is not just about finance, you can plan to save money and time. Time and finance are the key factors.
“Closing the gap goes on with quality in the sense that the story has to be rich with good quality. We should be dynamic with our story telling.
“We should be able to meet up to that standard in terms of story. Suspense keeps people engaged, so if Nigerians take stories for granted, we might not be able to reach that stage.”
Tunde Kelani, a producer, told TheNiche that telemundos are flooding the market and also creating a culture gap.
He says “they (Nigerians) might be watching these movies, buying Indian clothes. But is that going to change their identity? No.
“If care is not taken other cultures would be superimposed on our own. We may suffer identity crisis.”
For a counter offensive, Kelani advocates higher production quality in local movies and soaps because “it has moved to the arena of market supply and demand. We have to look at alternatives.
“The creative industry gives a lot of scope. There should be an element of funding, but we need a business model.”