Basketmouth claims Nollywood producers siphon funds from streaming platforms to buy houses, cars

Basketmouth, the comedian and filmmaker, has accused Nollywood producers of grossly mismanaging funds provided by global streaming platforms.

In a recent interview on Arise TV, Basketmouth alleged that many producers use as little as 10% of the budgets allocated for movie production while diverting the rest to fund their personal lifestyles.

He claimed that streaming platforms eventually started paying actors directly to bypass dishonest producers.

The standup comedian added that producers, however, allegedly found a way around it by demanding actors return half of their pay.

“When the streaming platforms came in, they gave money to these producers, and I’ll tell you point blank: these producers would take the money $1.5 million or whatever they give them and use about 10% of that money to make the movie,” he said.

“Even to the point where the streaming platforms stepped in and said, ‘You know what? We are going to be paying the actors directly,’ these guys would still go behind and tell the actors to pay half of that money back to them. You can verify the information anywhere.”

He argued that the fraudulent practice has taken a serious toll on the quality of Nollywood films.

“So, when you do that and expect your movie to be 100%, it can’t. It’s impossible.  But these guys? They’ll cut, buy houses, buy cars. And that’s why when you see our movies, some of our epic movies look like stage plays,” he added.

Basketmouth’s comments come after Kunle Afolayan, a filmmaker, revealed that Netflix has ceased commissioning Nigerian originals.

The filmmaker also lamented that this shift would significantly impact the income of producers who heavily invest in filmmaking.