Basketmouth Accuses Nollywood Producers Of Mismanaging Netflix Funds, Cites Impact On Film Quality

Nigerian comedian and filmmaker, Basketmouth, has accused Nollywood producers of mishandling funds allocated by global streaming platforms, asserting that their actions have adversely affected the quality of Nigerian films.

In a recent interview on Arise TV, Basketmouth alleged that many producers misappropriated significant portions of the budgets provided for movie productions, diverting the funds for personal use.

According to him, only a small percentage of the funds was actually spent on filmmaking.

“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.

Basketmouth further revealed that streaming platforms, upon discovering these alleged misappropriations, opted to pay actors directly to ensure transparency.

However, producers reportedly found a way to continue the malpractice by pressuring actors into returning part of their payment.

“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 added.

The filmmaker emphasized that such mismanagement has led to a decline in the quality of Nollywood films, with some high-budget productions appearing subpar.

“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,” Basketmouth lamented.