Hilda Dokubo: We don’t get royalties in Nollywood

Hilda Dokubo, the veteran actress, says there’s nothing like royalties in the Nigerian movie industry better known as Nollywood.

The 51-year-old was reflecting on the situation of things in the entertainment industry and its evolution into global prominence in a recent interview with HipTV.

A royalty is a legally binding payment made to an individual or company for the use of their assets, including copyrighted works, franchises, and natural resources.

According to Dokubo, having royalties in place in the industry would help appreciate the efforts of people who put in a lot of resources to produce films.

The film star recounted that she and many other actors were not paid for their works during the early days of their career in the industry because they consider it as a “building phase.”

“It will be nice to receive royalties. It’ll be nice to even get much more than whatever it was. I mean lot of us who started in the industry, most of the works we did, nobody actually paid us because we were building,” she said.

“That is why I tell people that ‘you never know what those who set the foundation had to go through to build the house that you’re in. It’d really be nice to get those royalties.”

On the evolution of Nollywood, Dokubo said the advent of technology has inspired more opportunities and changed several things in the industry.

“Stories are changing from regular family stuff to epic, horror, comedy and a whole lot. Writers are changing, producers are changing, there’s streaming platforms all over the place,” she added.