INTERVIEW: Without YouTube, many Nollywood producers would struggle, says Blessing Egbe

BLESSING EGBE is a film producer with decades of experience in the entertainment business. In this interview with TheCable’s Pelumi Bolawa, Blessing talks about being blacklisted in Nollywood following her court battle with Silverbird Cinema. She discusses her decision to bring back the TV series ‘Lekki Wives’ after 10 years. She also talks about industry gatekeeping and why YouTube is becoming a popular distribution channel for Nigerian filmmakers.

Pelumi Bolawa: Why did you wait this long to bring back ‘Lekki Wives’?

Blessing Egbe: I did not think I was going to do it. But the fans of the show wanted it. Ten years and they can still remember.

Every time, I get a direct message and somebody is saying, “What is up with the ‘Lekki Wives’?”

Up until last year, I sold it to a French TV station. And recently, a Ghana TV station asked about it.

Ten years later, I started thinking “Why not do another one to mark a tenth anniversary?” although we missed it because it was supposed to be last year. But we were waiting in queue for the big giants to license it. So we missed the ten-year mark.

Pelumi Bolawa: How were you able to keep the characters together over these years?

Blessing Egbe: That was a struggle. First of all, the budget was way out of reach. And I got in some interested parties who acted as executive producers. One of them insisted that I had to bring in new faces. And I said ‘no I would not’. I would not because people love the show because of the characters they watch.

For me, bringing new housewives was just like making a new housewives franchise not ‘Lekki Wives’. So getting them was very easy because we were always in contact with each other. And they keep telling me ‘Blessing no matter which film we have done, it is only ‘Lekki Wives’ people talk about’. So it was an easy stuff. They were so happy. And we thank God that everybody is intact. We lost the character Otunba. We had written him in. And at a time when I was writing, my sister called the wives and we were told that he was seriously ill. So I created an alternative to his role. And before we even shot it, he passed. But that did not affect the story.

And for me, writing the story was easy. Because these were characters I knew. But I had to go and watch a few episodes to reconnect. I introduced a character. Not as a wife but as an integral part of the story. She is playing Uju’s friend who she met in prison. Because in season three, Uju went to prison. So I kind of borrowed that from there. That was how they met. Uju is on a mission to deal with Loveth who has now taken her husband. It is now her friend that will do the dirty work.

Pelumi Bolawa: You are known to always invest heavily in movie productions, what was the budget for ‘Lekki Wives’?

Blessing Egbe: I did invest heavily. And I am afraid. N100 million has gone in. And when I say 100 million, it is because I did almost everything including writing, producing, directing, equipment, costume, and direction so if I start adding other ones.

Pelumi Bolawa: When ‘Lekki Wives’ was first produced, it was streamed on Dystrify.com, what was the choice of that platform at that time?

Blessing Egbe: I did not know what to do. Sometimes, I just go with my gut feeling. I have had so many calls, people telling me are you mad? I said well you can guess. I was trapped. I did not know where to sell my content. So, I went looking for a medium which I found on www.dystrify.com and as God would have it, the episode went up. I think the owner had watched it and they called about the episode and they paid for the next season and the next season. And that is how that one came to be.

Pelumi Bolawa: You were somehow blacklisted from the movie industry. Can you speak on that?

Blessing Egbe: That is the reason why I was trapped. Because I had taken Silverbird to court. I was kind of blacklisted. It was my sister that gave me the idea to do something. Do not make a film. Do something that you would sell to the masses directly. And I said let me just do a series. I can do it on TV and DVDs. That is how we made it. When we made it, going straight up to DVD was tricky and I said let me try online first. And then, the DVD came later after we did the rounds on TV, I remember.

You know when you stand up for yourself in Nollywood, I found that they did not like it all. We are all supposed to just nod and agree.  I always ask questions. I always challenge things that are not seemingly good. I always find myself on the receiving end. Can I stop? No. That is just who I am. You cannot talk about the ills that are happening in the industry because they would meet you at the gate when you come knocking. So we let a lot of things go because of the fear of being blocked out.

Pelumi Bolawa: What should your fans be expecting from ‘Lekki Wives’?

Blessing Egbe: For those who are fans of ‘Lekki Wives’, what they want they would get it. Which is drama. It is a story that people will be engaged in. I just love telling drama about women and their crazy lives. What we did with this one, even if you have not seen the old one, you will still follow. And there are quick flashbacks just to remind you who they are and where they are coming from. So if you have not seen Lekki Wives season 1,2, & 3, it is a stand-alone story.

Pelumi Bolawa: Will you continue the series after the first six episodes?

Blessing Egbe: I do not think I want to. Because this one was very expensive. I had to fly 16 or 17 persons to Senegal because it was a destination to see. I do not know.

Pelumi Bolawa: Do you think YouTube has contributed immensely to the growth of Nollywood?

Blessing Egbe: Yes it has, 100 percent. Without YouTube, I do not know where many producers would be.

YouTube came at the right time when the cinema culture segregated producers and divided them into creme de la creme of filmmakers who had guaranteed sales because they had that thing to right actors, publicity budget, and things like that, and were also friends with Cinema owners or the poor producers who would have been in a queue for platforms like ROK and African Magic who would give them a token to make sales and lose their copyright.

So, some of the Igbo brothers who, on their own were business-minded and very quick to find ways, started producing their movies on YouTube way before any of us.

Ruth Kadiri just recently came last year or two years ago. These guys were there for 10 years and they were making we did not even know about it. But when a few of us discovered the platform, we started using the platform that everybody had access to.

On YouTube, it is not free because you are burning your data, but it is there. It is so accessible. Even the paid streaming platforms have their account on YouTube. Now YouTube is a go-to channel for everyone who has never lacked a means to sell their films.

I started buying films from producers, licensing them, and putting them on the channel. I was spending the same fees with TV stations and I was kind to say TV stations are collecting it for two years, six months.

For me, as a producer, it was very easy, how much people pay for content.

So, I saw people who would say let us do a revenue share. They would give me their content and I would put it on the channel and we would share whatever revenue comes. And now, people like Ruth being an actor with so many millions of followers, you are seeing a lot of publicity. There is that rush. And people are earning money. People are shooting. If you call actors now, you will not find them. I think YouTube has saved the day.

There was a point when they hacked my YouTube, but we recovered it. I lost it for 10 months. Then it was recovered. I had all my followers and subscribers. But I lost it and they enjoyed my revenue for the 10 months.

Pelumi Bolawa: Why did you not share the production tasks with other professionals?

Blessing Egbe: I did try to hire writers. I called one or two people to write but I struggled. Nobody would understand ‘Lekki Wives’ the way I do. So I did not have time for that period but I said, let me do it. And when you do it, producing is easier because you are coordinating everything. You know the story.