Nollywood's Film Industry Second Only to Bollywood in Scale

For Dickson Iroegbu, the day he was almost killed by Nollywood began with an important decision. He could either say nothing and continue to look on as they made their trash films and shoveled money at each other, or he could put on a pinstriped suit and tell these Mafiosi that he wasn't going to play their game anymore.

A man walks past a store selling CDs and DVDs of Nollywood films in Abidjan, 16 June 2007. Nollywood...

A man walks past a store selling CDs and DVDs of Nollywood films in Abidjan, 16 June 2007. Nollywood is the massive, pulsating film industry in Nigeria, which the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) has declared the world's second-largest film industry, after India's Bollywood, based on the number of films produced.

(Kambou Sia/AFP/Getty Images)

It was a Wednesday morning, and the sun was barely shining through the smog-covered skies over Lagos. The most important men in Nollywood, the filmmakers, were meeting near the National Theater to elect their president, when Iroegbu, 32, a filmmaker himself and winner of the African Movie Academy Award -- Africa's Oscar -- rushed past the heavily armed police officers, took a deep breath and, with a loud voice, crashed the event.
The invited guests, men and women, were standing in front of him in their sunglasses and suits, wielding their Blackberries. Iroegbu, a slight man with light-brown skin and glasses, grabbing and shaking their hands, said things like: "Let's make Nollywood happen. We don't need politics here. Why don't you just get back to work? Enough with the greed, enough with the power games." The filmmakers shook their heads, doing their best to ignore this man, a man they despised. Some said he should leave.