Nigerian filmmaker Mo Abudu has revealed she hates the term ‘Nollywood,’ commonly used to refer to the local movie industry.
She made the disclosure in an interview with ‘Deadline’, alongside British actor Idris Elba.
Abudu highlighted that the name ‘Nollywood’ was coined by a Canadian journalist who visited Nigeria and arbitrarily assigned this label to the industry.
She believes that the term signifies a period when films were not produced to high standards and lacked proper craftsmanship.
Mo Abudu said; “Do you know the history behind the word? A Canadian journalist came to Nigeria and decided that he was going to give us the name Nollywood, and that was it. It’s stuck since then.
“I hate the word Nollywood. The term Nollywood itself is a bad genre of filmmaking. We all know what Nollywood is supposed to represent, it’s the VHS films that were made back in the day.
“So, to still be called Nollywood, for me, is a no. We need to use terms like African filmmakers or Nigerian filmmakers,” she added.
