Why I said sharia affects cinema culture in Northern Nigeria —Actor Ali Nuhu

Kannywood arrowhead, Ali Nuhu, who has been drumming support for the revamp of the cinema culture in northern Nigeria has reinforced his concerns in a statement.

The actor in an interview last week had remonstrated the poor reception of showbiz and in particular the cinema culture in the north since the advent of the Sharia Law.

Nuhu said the reason he made the statement was because “the entertainment industry has not been accepted in the north the way it has been accepted in other part of the country. This is because of the culture and the religion. The issue of the film village came up. A lot of the clergymen were against it. I think that is what is responsible for all this.”

He also said he wanted investors to build more cinemas in northern cities of the country.

He added that Kannywood industry had a cinema culture and wants it to be brought back as it would boost economic activity in the region and returns for the investment of movie producers in the region.

Speaking on the cinema culture in Kannywood in the online interview, Nuhu said, “Kannywood started it like 15 years ago, most of the movies we make go round the cinemas before they go on DVD.

“But, with the advent of the Sharia Law, most of the cinemas houses closed down and that’s what affected Kannywood in that regard. As we speak, there’s Filmhouse in Kano and there are some other cinema in Abuja, and we do hope that cinema owners will build cinemas around the North, just so we can have a big distribution circle. Because, if you don’t have a big distribution circle and you make a cinema movie, you stand to lose”, Ali Nuhu said in the interview.

He added that a large number of films from the north are made in Kano, hence the name Kannywood.

Ali Nuhu was also said to release his first cinematic project on  the 30th of June 2017.