There Are Lots Of Idea Thieves In Nollywood – Imoh Umoren

Popular Nigerian filmmaker, Imoh Umoren has come out to share how someone stole his idea for a movie and invited him to its premiere.

He recently had his say via his social media page, and Nigerians have been reacting.

According to him, he actually had a conversation with the person involved and the individual admitted using his script for the movie, which led him to believe that there are crazy people in Nollywood.

Imoh added that he had to let it go because the person was much more powerful than him at the time, plus he was eventually compensated with some work.

WOW.

Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in The New York Times. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed-upon definition for the term, which has made it a subject to several controversies.

The origin of the term “Nollywood” remains unclear; Jonathan Haynes traced the earliest usage of the word to a 2002 article by Matt Steinglass in the New York Times, where it was used to describe Nigerian cinema.

Charles Igwe noted that Norimitsu Onishi also used the name in a September 2002 article he wrote for the New York Times. The term continues to be used in the media to refer to the Nigerian film industry, with its definition later assumed to be a portmanteau of the words “Nigeria” and “Hollywood”, the American major film hub.

Film-making in Nigeria is divided largely along regional, and marginally ethnic and religious lines. Thus, there are distinct film industries – each seeking to portray the concern of the particular section and ethnicity it represents. However, there is the English-language film industry which is a melting pot for filmmaking and filmmakers from most of the regional industries.