Nollywood Producer Says Films With Pornographic Scenes Didn’t Pass Through Censors Board

It all seemed like a joke when sometime last year American-based Nigerian actress, Judith Opara Mazagwu, popularly known as AfroCandy, called for actors and actresses who could fit into nude roles.

This call got mixed reactions from the public but it did not stop the producers of movies like Room 027 and Bold 5 Babes.

Fans of controversial actress, Tonto Dikeh, showed their disdain when they saw her in two different soft pornography movies.
But the actress defended herself in an online interview, where she said, “Only the ignorant and pretentious souls would criticise this lovely movie. It is a film, it’s a job that has to be done. I accepted the script because when I see a good film in the making, I appreciate it.

“What everyone has seen is just a trailer and we all know trailers are supposed to be fun-filled so as to attract viewers. So, it’s allowed to be called a soft porn at this stage. That movie is the deepest story line I’ve ever read. It’s a movie most people can identify with: I love and appreciate all the hype around this movie.”

There has been the noticeable increase in the degree of nudity now accommodated in some of the recently released movies in the country.
 
In their defense the actors points at globalization and desire to meet international standard as a motivation for concentrating on this feature.

The Film and Video Censors Board have said such films will not be allowed to circulate in the country, unfortunately the producers of these movies are taken advantage of these online platforms and also find a way of getting them into the open market.

The chairman Film Markets Association, Norbert Ajaegbu said movies with these features leave the self like hot cake.

The president of the Association of Movie Producers, Zik Zulu Okafor has said a writer or producer has a right of expression but in Nollywood “we don’t encourage erosion of our core values”.

Speaking on Channels Television News At Ten, Mr Zulu explained that Nollywood as a body is currently working on the council (Motion Picture Practitioner Council of Nigeria) which has not been in place yet.

He said that what is established right now is only the Guild system, “there is no authority behind that” (the content) and therefore they are not able to control it. He left to that is the National Film and Video Censored Board.

He added that the online platform has to be checked and a lot of people are doing “shortcut” in releasing their films and they avoid the censored board.

Mr. Zulu said the censored board is raiding the market looking for producers who release movies without being censored
 
“A lot of these films come from Ghana because in Nigeria we are sensitive”.

He maintained the fact that “movies that contain nudity did not pass through censored board”.
 
SOURCE: CHANNELSTV