9th October, 2016.

You may have heard about the recent battle between the old Nollywood and the new Nollywood. It was more like a war of words actually but I’m sure you agree ‘battle’ sounds more dramatic. Whether you call it war, battle or debate, it’s nothing out of the norm. It must be in man’s nature for the old to contend with the new and vice versa. Although as in most things, trust the Nigerian factor to emerge as the protagonist of this age old struggle for supremacy/relevance.

What started this latest battle between the old and the new stemmed from film maker Charles Novia’s interview with Emma Ugolee on The Gist in which he reportedly dismissed some new Nollywood actors as Instagram stars, etc, etc. His companion on the day was fellow film maker Moses Inwang who had issues with the fact that some of these actors preferred to see themselves as ‘new’ Nollywood. I like many people only caught the ‘controversy’ that this interview generated rather than the original interview.

Mind you, this will not be the first time Charles Novia would be ruffling some feathers. Which is why I don’t need to watch The Gist to get the ‘gist’ of what Charles Novia supposedly said. Not too long ago during the MOPICON (Motion Picture Of Nigeria) draft bill debate, he referred to some Nollywood actors as upstarts or was it up tarts? The beauty of upstarts is that it also contains up stars.

Expectedly, reactions have mostly fallen along age lines: Young, perennially (and imagined) young people tended to side with the new while the old, those who crave respect (like oxygen) and like to ascribe age and veteran-ship to themselves tended to fall in line behind the so called old Nollywood. Who is really old Nollywood anyhow? Is it the film makers from 1992 (agreed birth year of Nollywood) or those from the 50s and 60s? Or even much earlier? But I digress.

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