The Nigerian film industry reportedly loses up to 15 billion dollars a year to piracy and yet remains one of the most prolific entertainment powerhouses on earth. This episode unpacks that paradox, starting with the fact that the name Nollywood was not chosen by Nigerian filmmakers at all but coined by New York Times journalists in the early 2000s, a label that has fueled an identity struggle ever since.

The discussion traces the industry from traveling theater troupes and celluloid pioneers of the 1960s and 70s, through the 1992 VHS breakthrough Living in Bondage, to the distinct regional engines of Igbo, Yoruba, Hausa-language Kannywood, and Calabar-based cinema. It then follows Nollywood’s expansion into Ghana and the diaspora, the suitcase-driven distribution network that preceded broadband, the piracy crisis on platforms like Telegram, the pivot to YouTube as a primary distribution channel, and the bitter Nollywood at 20 controversy that pitted veteran filmmakers against video-era producers.

• Why the blank VHS tape, not a single film, is the real origin of the modern Nigerian video boom
• How Igbo filmmakers adopted English to reach a national market across more than 300 languages
• Kannywood’s deliberate blend of Hausa culture with Bollywood storytelling for northern audiences
• Runaway productions in Accra, Nollywood USA, and the rise of transnational African film
• The Nollywood at 20 dispute, the push to rename the industry entirely, and who gets to own its origin story