Nigeria’s love affair with Bollywood began in the 1950s whenever a group of ambitious Lebanese merchants decided to import Indian movies into the country since they were far less expensive to licence than the current Hollywood blockbusters. Attending Bollywood movie screenings in open-air courtyards as well as makeshift movie theatres rapidly became a popular Nigerian activity, particularly in the country’s northern regions.
The odd part is that these movies were never dubbed or subtitled in any of Nigeria’s languages for decades. Notwithstanding the linguistic barrier, several viewers watched the same movies on many occasions, finally acquiring snatches of Hindi. Part of such easiness in determining the narrative may be due to India’s polyglot nature: successful movies would have had to be translated throughout India’s different languages, thus dialogue alone would not be enough.
A 2015 video showing Miss Nigeria and Miss Indonesia connecting over their mutual love of Bollywood films before both breaking into song is a perfect illustration of Bollywood’s worldwide appeal and ease with which it has overcome linguistic boundaries.
As a result, while Nigerian viewers were unable to comprehend the dialogue, the tempo and storyline of the films allowed them to piece together the narrative. In Nigeria, for example, the three-hour-long 1957 classic Mother India is still one of the most beloved Bollywood films of all time. Despite the fact that they do not speak Hindi, some fans have memorised the whole dialogue from the film. “I’ve been playing this picture for decades, and it can still sell out any theatre in the north,” a Nigerian film distributor observed.
Nonetheless, what would drive hordes of people to watch two- and three-hour movies inside a language they don’t understand over and over again? It’s because Nigerian communities recognised themselves in Bollywood’s storylines.
“In Bollywood and African communities, arranged weddings, caste restrictions, and the value of morality, dignity, family name, as well as religion were all prominent themes On the continent, the battle against colonialism, the impoverished, exploited, and oppressed as prominent characters, and mythology – all subjects that European and American films largely disregarded – resonated deeply. According to Sylviane A. Diouf, digital collection curator at the Schomburg Center for Research in Black Culture in Harlem, “Bollywood offers a paradigm of cultural resistance and a bridge between tradition and modernity.”
These aspects of Bollywood films drew the attention of Nigerians, particularly the conservative Hausa in northern Nigeria. Indian movies are essentially screened every night in theatres in Kano, the biggest city in northern Nigeria, as well as remain as one of the most popular television shows.
There’s also the ‘Lovers of India,’ a Sufi male ensemble that performs Bollywood melodies with religious lyrics. Similarly, Bollywood music has been adopted by a number of modernised Quranic (Islamiyya) schools, with schoolgirl choirs singing praises to the Prophet Muhammad in Hausa towards the rhythm of Bollywood blockbusters. Unfortunately, Islamic extremists such as Boko Haram in northern Nigeria have attacked this tendency in recent years, despite the region’s tremendous passion for Bollywood.
The rise of soyayya – or love – writing inside the 1980s was another result of Bollywood’s impact. Soyayya novels, which were inspired by Bollywood films’ traditional and naive representations of romantic love, were a key instrument for Hausa women in their quest to modernise their conservative societies.
Also Read: How has Bollywood influenced Indian culture?
