‘Why Hausa movies look like Indian films’

Usman Mu’azu is one of Kannywood’s leading producers. In this interview, he speaks about his career, challenges, intrigues in the movie industry and many more. Excerpts:   Weekend Magazine:  What attracted you to Kannywood? Usman Mu’azu: From my secondary school days, I’d loved watching Indian and American films; I became impressed with the way they […]

Usman Mu’azu is one of Kannywood’s leading producers. In this interview, he speaks about his career, challenges, intrigues in the movie industry and many more. Excerpts:

 

Weekend Magazine:  What attracted you to Kannywood?

Usman Mu’azu: From my secondary school days, I’d loved watching Indian and American films; I became impressed with the way they promote their countries, religions, culture, and other values. So, with the advent of Kannywood and the proliferation of Hausa films in the late 1990s, I realized that joining the film industry was the easiest way to contribute my quota towards projecting and promoting our culture and religion. One can easily pass a message via film that could take a preacher many years to achieve.

WM: Can we say you’ve been able to achieve your mission by changing the Hausa culture?

Mu’azu: We are not changing the Hausa culture as some people are insinuating. What we are trying to achieve is to teach an average Hausa man the true culture and teachings of his religion – Islam. In essence, we are translating what we read from history books about our forefathers to our people who can’t read or write.

WM: What are the challenges you encounter in the industry?

Mu’azu: One issue is the negative impression from people about the Hausa film industry. What they tend to forget is that in every group, there is the possibility of finding the good and bad. Even in our respective homes, you will find that there is an obedient child and a disrespectful one, yet they are from the same parents.

The film industry is like an empty bottle, and whatever one puts inside the bottle is what it will take. Whether you pour beer or water into the bottle, it remains a bottle. It is the content that will determine the goodness or otherwise. People stereotype and paint us black, and I believe this is a great injustice to us.

Another challenge is lack of funds to produce quality films that can compete anywhere in the world. We need more funding. If the movie industry is well-funded, we can generate more money for the economy and also create more jobs.

WM: Do you think Kannywood has developed from the time you joined and now?

Mu’azu: Of course, there is development; from the story lines to the technical aspects of film production. We have advanced in the area of equipment we use; the equipment we have can compete with those of Hollywood or Bollywood. What we need is to train our people to handle them effectively to produce quality pictures like in the advanced countries.

Also, if you watch Kannywood films now, unlike before, you must see one or two messages either about our culture or a message propagating Islam. I am proud to be associated with this development which always spurs me to strive more in producing films that will promote our culture and religion.

WM: Kannywood producers are accused of copying Indian films and produce them in Hausa language. How true is this assertion?

Mu’azu: A lot of our viewers complain about this issue. After receiving many complaints, we decided to investigate. Our findings revealed that the Bollywood industry has been around for decades; as such they’ve produced films in almost every aspect of human endeavour. That’s the reason why, even if a producer did not copy directly, viewers will see some similarities and attribute it to a particular Indian film.

However, I will not deny the fact that some do copy some Indian films, but as far as I am concerned, I don’t do such things and if any of my films resemble any Indian film, it is just a coincidence.

WM: You’ve produced a lot of comedy films like Karangiya and Hedimasta, Yaki Da Jahilci and others. Are you now into comedy?

Mu’azu: As a film producer, one has to be versatile. You should be able to produce films that bother on every aspect of human endevour. These days, people need more humour to relax from the stressful life they live daily; so we decided to venture into producing comedy as part of our contribution towards entertaining our audience.

WM: How many films have you produced so far?

Mu’azu: Since I joined the industry in 2004, I have produced about 113 films, 16 of them are under the banner of my company – Express Media Art Investment Limited. Notable among them are Ga Duhu Ga Haske; Karangiya; Sarauta; Ga Fili Ga Mai Doki; Maza da Mata; Dan Marayan Zaki; Hedimasta; Garba Gurmi; Yaki Da Jahilci; Hangen Nesa; Ummi Adnan; Ashabul Kahfi; Wuta da Aljanna; Bashin Gaba and recently Lantana.

WM: Which was your most challenging movie?

Mu’azu: Most of the movies were challenging because you are expected to interpret different roles in every movie. But I think ‘Dan Marayan Zaki’ was most challenging because of the huge budget and the long time it took us to produce the film which lasted over six months. We had to struggle really hard to keep the actors in shape, so that they didn’t add weight in the course of production.

WM: Where you able to make profit from the film?

Mu’azu: The film roughly cost us N11 million to make, when just N4 million was spent to produce a film. But Alhamdulillah, in its first week of release we recovered our money and made profit. Then, the business was still booming and we made a lot of profit from the films we produced.

WM: How do you think government can help Kannywood?

Mu’azu: We need government to come into the industry in terms of capacity building, workshops and seminar on technical aspects of film production for the actors, directors, producers and other production staffs because only a few of us received formal training on film production.

If government and corporate bodies can organise such workshops and trainings, it will improve our capacity to produce quality films that can compete with films from other parts of the world.

When the practitioners in the Hausa film industry are properly trained and are producing good films, sourcing for capital will not be a problem. Marketers will invest their money because they can be sure to make profit. We have employed over 20, 000 youths who are working in the industry either as production assistants, film marketers, cinema owners, and people that download the film in GSM markets.

I was in India recently for a 6-weeks training on film and television production. I was made to understand that through films we can address most of the social vices currently bedeviling our country. For instance, through films we can tackle the issue of drug abuse, insecurity and others. If government engages us, we can come up with films that will address such problems. In the past, films were use to educate members of the public on some diseases which were eventually eradicated. So, we can also contribute by producing films along the areas that government wants to educate, inform and enlighten the members of the public.

WM: Piracy is the biggest issue affecting the film industry. What can be done to stop?

Mu’azu: Most people are afraid to invest in the industry because of piracy. The government is doing a lot in that aspect. I recently read in your newspaper (Daily Trust) about those sentenced to imprisonment for downloading and selling our films without consent, it is a good development. On our part, we also have an anti piracy group that fights such activities.

WM: What upcoming projects do you have?

Mu’azu: My next project is a film on the issue of insecurity in northern Nigeria; we will start shooting next month. Also, my latest film that will start showing in cinemas is ‘Lantana’, a film about girl child education and rape. The film features actors like Ali Nuhu, Halima Atete, Ahmad Bello, Khadija Aminu, Isa A. Isa, and other prominent actors.