For some time now, many analysts and pundits of the Nigerian movie industry have hailed the new breed of filmmakers and their improved ways of telling stories as the future of Nollywood. However, a silent group of producers seem to have struck gold in making soft pó.rn, and it is booming.
I am sure by now you may have seen some Nollywood movie preview on YouTube with a very alluring thumbnail that tempts you to click and watch. When you click to watch you would usually see a teaser with a seeming plot that ends with a steamy sex scene; and an announcement that ‘if you want to see the full video or raw behind the scenes footage email or call/WhatsApp some specific numbers’.
But it does not end there. When you contact them, you’re given a price and bank account details to pay to, in order to receive the titles you hope to see sent to your email. Some producers also point you to a website where you can pay an amount to subscribe and watch these titles.
These movies are usually of low quality, with little or no storyline but a lot of nudity and dry humping. But sometimes things get more explicit as some titles go even further to show real intercourse.
After digging around, I found out that one of the producers of such movies was a familiar face in Nollywood and the Nigerian entertainment sector. In confidence of not revealing his real name (and of course paying to see a number of his movies), he agreed to allow me to interview him regarding what many would term his immoral and evil new direction.
The producer and director of many such titles under the NollyFun TV belt, revealed that the phenomenon has not been entirely new, and it only satisfies a demand to see sex by many Nigerians and viewers globally.
“I went into soft pó.rn not intentionally. When a romantic scene from a Nollywood movie I produced was extracted and uploaded on a pó.rn site with my contacts, fans started calling and demanding for more, and that’s how we started,” he explains
So who are the people who patronize such videos? According to the producer, “foreign people appreciate us a lot for bringing such productions to Africa, some Nigerians buy and appreciate us too, while some are stubborn and choose to talk us out of it.”
So in a region where morality is a big thing, how easy is it to find actors willing to strip down and engage in such scenes? From the selection of titles I saw from the NollyFunTV producers, it appears he keeps a constant male actor and a few actresses on rotation. I wanted to interview his actors but with little success.
He said, “It’s a big challenge to produce such movies; you hardly get a good cast for it, especially females. Most of the calls we received so far are from males that want to join; we hardly get calls from women to join. So it’s always tasking to get new cast to produce such movies in Nigeria.”
This is not the case for every producer in the field; some do get a variety of people for casting; a variety of cast that are sometimes willing to take it a notch further from softpó.rn to hardcore pó.rn. Datkindboy and Freeman, from Freethinkers Production belong to that group of bold and daring producers.
Freethinkers have been using pó.rn sharing sites to promote their productions in a similar way as their soft pó.rn counterparts. But have now launched their NaijaRawpó.rn portal to serve their growing fan base, and of course make money.
I also had the chance to speak to the producers and some of their actors to find out why they decided to enter such a trade. They didn’t beat about the bush regarding the financial motive behind their venture.
“The pó.rn industry is a multi billion project world wide, so we decided to let Nigeria/Africa benefit from it also. Our productions cost above 200,000 Naira ($550) per movie, and the returns have been fair so far. There is definitely a high demand for African pó.rn out there as people are getting tired if western pó.rn, African pó.rn is the next big thing. People from all over the world have been showing massive support and interest since we began. Which is a motivation for us to continue.”
FreeThinkers Production has managed to gain over 10million fans/viewers around world from their Xvideos channel and Twitter account, and this could translate into huge revenues for them, therefore not surprising to see young men and women willing to join their productions.
Aremu, and actor who works with Freethinkers comments “I’ve always wanted to be a pó.rn star, so I’m glad its happening in Africa in this generation. I know the basics of having sex on camera; I have a good penis size and all the qualities of a good pó.rn star. Having payment and getting a role in a pó.rn movie, as a guy is enough privilege for me because there are thousands of African guys looking for this opportunity. My only fear usually is not performing well on set. Definitely, I want to make a career out of this and also get known internationally.”
Lisahot, an actress for the producers, is also one not shy of family and friends finding out about her role inpó.rn. According to the university undergraduate, she has always been very sexual and confident of her body, so acting pó.rn is a way to express herself, and most importantly make money! “Some people are not surprised while some people are. But come to think of it, how did they find the video? They must be a pó.rn fan I guess,” she retorted.
She explained that she always asks for medical results of fellow actors, payment and promotion for deals before acting these roles. Although she didn’t state it clearly, by ‘promotion for deals’, it can be inferred that she may also be used to service paying clients.
She continued, “I have no fears really, because it’s a contract thing, I can decide to stop whenever I want just like every other pó.rn star out there. If it turns out to be a high paying industry, why not, I may do it for the long haul”
So is Nigeria’s new love for pó.rn here to stay or is it a going to die out soon? Or will it spread across Africa just like the growth of Nollywood inspired other industries on the continent?
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