AY seals production deal in Nollywood’s first major collab with China

Ayo Makun, Nigerian showbusiness mogul better known as AY, has sealed a movie production deal with Huawen Movie Group in China for ‘30 Days in China’, his forthcoming movie.

The movie is part of AY’s comedy franchise, which includes ’30 days in Atlanta’ and ’10 days in Sun City,’ where he films adventures in different countries.

The deal, which is aimed to produce the first major China-Nigeria film, also comes on the heels of the stand-up comedian’s works on ‘Merry Men: The Real Yoruba Demons’.

Moses Babatope, a co-founder of FilmOne Entertainment who also accompanied AY to the meeting in China, told CNN that the Chinese collaboration will open up Nollywood to China’s colossal cinema-going audience and enable them to create better quality movies.

“We will be exposed to a lucrative and moving Chinese film market. It’s like skipping many hurdles and getting access to an existing mature market. The idea of the partnership is that beyond their willingness and their interest in Africa is their capacity,” Babatope said.

“Huahua has the equipment, we visited their facility in China and we are going to be accessing that. Collaborations like this will enhance our filmmaking craft.”

AY has been on a rampage in recent times, intersecting the comedy showbusiness with mainstream Nollywood movies and teaming up with prominent veterans for new releases — a development that might see him top 2019 numbers.