Hausa film industry and the ‘menace’ of appropriation of Indian romantic movies | Intellect Skip to content
1981
Deadly Serious: Pandemic Humour, Media and Critical Perspectives
  • ISSN: 2040-199X
  • E-ISSN: 1751-7974

Abstract

Against many odds, the Hausa film industry alias Kannywood has come of age. The film industry survives several pressing challenges from within and outside Nigeria, perhaps more than its counterparts anywhere else. Although there is no denying that the quality of its output has significantly improved, its survival has little or nothing to do with that. Many critics, including the Motion Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria (MOPPAN) leadership, call ‘bad’ films, are still being made. Romantic movies, laden with a typical and predictable pattern of the love triangle, song and dance sequences among other appropriated and plagiarized Bollywood modalities, remain the favourite of producers and arguably that of the audience. However, according to some surveys, such films lack merit in the realm of critical film discourse in Africa and beyond. This article is set out to discuss this issue through a content analysis of a recent film titled (Nuhu 2019). The movie, released in 2019, is a bloated, implausible melodrama and a direct mimicry of a famous Indian film, (Gupta 2017).

Loading

Article metrics loading...

/content/journals/10.1386/jams_00081_1
2022-06-01
2024-05-03
Loading full text...

Full text loading...

References

  1. Adamu, A. U.. ( 2006;), ‘ Transglobal media flows and African popular culture: Revolution and reaction in Muslim Hausa popular culture. ’, UK Biennial Conference School of African and Oriental Studies, University of London, London, 12 September.
    [Google Scholar]
  2. Adamu, A. U.. ( 2007;), ‘ Currying favour: Eastern media influences and the Hausa video film. ’, Film International, 5:4, pp. 7789.
    [Google Scholar]
  3. Adamu, A. U.. ( 2011;), ‘ Eastward Ho! Cultural proximity and eastern focus in Hausa fiction and videos. ’, in J. A. McIntyre, and M. Reh. (eds), From Oral Literature to Video: The Case of Hausa, Cologne:: Rüdiger Köppe;, pp. 81108.
    [Google Scholar]
  4. Adamu, A. U.. ( 2019;), ‘ Transcultural language intimacies: The linguistic domestication of Indian films in the Hausa language. ’, in W. K. Harrow, and C. Garritano. (eds), A Companion to African Cinema, Hoboken, NJ:: Wiley Blackwell;, pp. 15575.
    [Google Scholar]
  5. Adamu, Y. M.. ( 2002;), ‘ Between the word and the screen: A historical perspective on the Hausa literary movement and the home video invasion. ’, Journal of African Cultural Studies, 15:2, pp. 20313.
    [Google Scholar]
  6. Adesokan, A.. ( 2004;), ‘ “How they see it”: The politics and aesthetics of Nigerian video films. ’, in T. Olaniyan, and J. Conteh-Morgan. (eds), African Drama and Performance, Bloomington, IN:: Indiana University Press;, pp. 18997.
    [Google Scholar]
  7. Barber, K.. ( 2018), A History of African Popular Culture, Cambridge:: Cambridge University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  8. Branston, G.. ( 2006;), ‘ Understanding genre. ’, in M. Gillespie, and J. Toynbee. (eds), Analysing Media Text, London:: Open University Press;, pp. 4378.
    [Google Scholar]
  9. Brooker, P.. ( 2007;), ‘ Postmodern adaptation: Pastiche, intertextuality and re-functioning. ’, in D. Cartmell, and I. Whelehan. (eds), The Cambridge Companion to Literature on Screen, Cambridge:: Cambridge University Press;, pp. 10720.
    [Google Scholar]
  10. Furniss, G.. ( 2003), Hausa Popular Literature and Video Film: The Rapid Rise of Cultural Production in Times of Economic Decline, Mainz:: Institut für Ethnologie und Afrikastudien;.
    [Google Scholar]
  11. Garritano, C.. ( 2013;), ‘ West African video-movies and their transnational imaginaries. ’, in A. Quayson, and G. Daswani. (eds), A Companion to Diaspora and Transnationalism, Chichester:: Blackwell Publishing Ltd;, pp. 24962.
    [Google Scholar]
  12. Gidan-Dabino, A. A.. ( 2011;), ‘ Littattafan Soyayya: Samuwarsu da Bunkasarsu da kuma Tasirinsu ga Al’ummar Hausawa a Nijeriya. ’, in J. A. McIntyre, and M. Reh. (eds), From Oral Literature to Video: The Case of Hausa, Cologne:: Rüdiger Köppe;, pp. 144.
    [Google Scholar]
  13. Greenberg, H. R.. ( 1991;), ‘ Raiders of the lost text: Remaking as contested homage. ’, Journal of Popular Film and Television, 18:1, pp. 16471.
    [Google Scholar]
  14. Gupta, S.. ( 2017), Kaabil, Mumbai:: Filmkraft Productions Pvt. Ltd;.
    [Google Scholar]
  15. Hesmondhalgh, D.. ( 2006;), ‘ Discourse analysis and content analysis. ’, in M. Gillespie, and J. Toynbee. (eds), Analysing Media Text, London:: Open University Press;, pp. 11956.
    [Google Scholar]
  16. Ibrahim, M. M.. ( 2017;), ‘ Originality in absentia: A study of Kannywood selected films. ’, in H. I. Abdulraheem,, S. B. Aliyu, and R. K. Akano. (eds), Literature, Integration and Harmony in Northern Nigeria, Ilorin:: Kwara State University Press;, pp. 7285.
    [Google Scholar]
  17. Ibrahim, M.. ( 2018;), ‘ Contemporary “non-culamāɔ” Hausa women and Islamic discourses on television screens. ’, Journal for Islamic Studies, 37:1, pp. 10119.
    [Google Scholar]
  18. Inuwa, A. T.. ( 2016;), ‘ Cross-cultural film remakes: Intertextuality and appropriation from Hindi to Hausa home video films. ’, Ph.D. proposal, Kano:: Bayero University;.
    [Google Scholar]
  19. Kristeva, J.. ( [1977] 1980), Word, Dialogue, and Novel. Desire in Language: A Semiotic Approach to Literature and Art (ed. L. S. Roudiez., trans. T. Gora and A. Jardine), New York:: Columbia University Press;, pp. 6491.
    [Google Scholar]
  20. Larkin, B.. ( 1997;), ‘ Indian films and Nigerian lovers: Media and the creation of parallel modernities. ’, Africa, 67:3, pp. 40640.
    [Google Scholar]
  21. Larkin, B.. ( 2004;), ‘ Degraded images, distorted sounds: Nigerian video and the infrastructure of piracy. ’, Public Culture, 12:2, pp. 289314.
    [Google Scholar]
  22. Larkin, B.. ( 2008), Signal and Noise: Media, Infrastructure, and Urban Culture in Nigeria, Durham, NC:: Duke University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  23. Lee, C. S.. ( 2014;), ‘ The meanings of romance: Rethinking early modern fiction. ’, Modern Philology, 112:2, pp. 287311, https://doi.org/10.1086/678255. Accessed 9 September 2019.
    [Google Scholar]
  24. Lere, M.. ( 2019;), ‘ KANNYWOOD: MOPPAN moves to sanction producers who make love-themed films. ’, Premium Times, 31 May, https://www.premiumtimesng.com/entertainment/332723-kannywood-moppan-moves-to-sanction-producers-who-make-love-themed-films.html. Accessed 9 September 2019.
    [Google Scholar]
  25. Malumfashi, I.. ( 1994;), ‘ Adabin Kasuwar Kano. ’, Nasiha, 29 July.
    [Google Scholar]
  26. McCahill, M.. ( 2017;), ‘ Kaabil review: Preposterous Hrithik Roshan melodrama stuck in Bollywood’s past. ’, The Guardian, 25 January, https://www.theguardian.com/film/2017/jan/25/kaabil-review-hrithik-roshan-sanjay-gupta-preposterous-melodrama. Accessed 9 September 2019.
    [Google Scholar]
  27. McCain, C.. ( 2012;), ‘ Video exposé: Metafiction and message in Nigerian films. ’, Journal of African Cinemas, 4:1, pp. 2557.
    [Google Scholar]
  28. McCain, C.. ( 2014;), ‘ The politics of exposure: Contested cosmopolitanisms, revelation of secrets, and intermedial reflexivity in hausa popular expression. ’, Ph.D. dissertation, Madison, WI:: University of Wisconsin;.
    [Google Scholar]
  29. McIntyre, J., and Reh, M.. (eds) ( 2011), From Oral Literature to Video: The Case of Hausa, Koln:: Rudiger Koppe Verlag;.
    [Google Scholar]
  30. Musa, U. A.. ( 2019), Emotions in Muslim Hausa Women’s Fiction: More than Just Romance, London and New York:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  31. Nandy, A.. (ed.) ( 1998;), ‘ Introduction. ’, in The Secret Politics of Our Desires: Innocence and Culpability and Indian Popular Cinema, New Delhi:: Zed;, pp. 118.
    [Google Scholar]
  32. Nuhu, A.. ( 2019), Sareena, Kano:: Maishadda Global Resources Limited;.
    [Google Scholar]
  33. Okome, O.. ( 2010;), ‘ Nollywood and its critics. ’, in M. Saul, and R. Austen. (eds), Viewing African Cinema in the Twenty-First Century: Art Films and the Nollywood Video Revolution, Athens, OH:: Ohio University Press;, pp. 2641.
    [Google Scholar]
  34. Olaniyan, T.. ( 2004;), ‘ Festivals, ritual, and drama in Africa. ’, in F. Abiola Irele, and S. Gikandi. (eds), The Cambridge History of African and Caribbean Literature, Cambridge:: Cambridge University Press;, pp. 3548.
    [Google Scholar]
  35. Robson, T.. ( 2012), Kokomma, Nigeria:: Royal Arts Academy;.
    [Google Scholar]
  36. Sanders, J.. ( 2006), Adaptation and Appropriation, London:: Routledge;.
    [Google Scholar]
  37. Singer, B.. ( 2001), Melodrama and Modernity: Early Sensational Cinema and Its Contexts, New York:: Columbia University Press;.
    [Google Scholar]
  38. Ibrahim, Muhammad Muhsin. ( 2022;), ‘ Hausa film industry and the “menace” of appropriation of Indian romantic movies. ’, Journal of African Media Studies, 14:2, pp. 32739, https://doi.org/10.1386/jams_00081_1
    [Google Scholar]
http://instance.metastore.ingenta.com/content/journals/10.1386/jams_00081_1
Loading
/content/journals/10.1386/jams_00081_1
Loading

Data & Media loading...

  • Article Type: Article
Keyword(s): appropriation; Bollywood; Hausa; Kannywood; MOPPAN; plagiarism; romance
This is a required field
Please enter a valid email address
Approval was a success
Invalid data
An error occurred
Approval was partially successful, following selected items could not be processed due to error