Ugonnaya Nwachukwu
Ugonnaya back from London with TV Drama "Collide"
UK-based producer, Ugonnaya Nwachukwu, speaks with AKEEM LASISI on a TV drama she is working on, Collide
From her London, UK base, where she runs Ninety One Productions, Ugonnaya Nwachukwu is in Nigeria. While her outfit is involved in the development of soap operas, documentaries, web series, talk shows and short films for television, her major project currently is the production of Collide, a TV drama feasting on the experience of a lady having a running battle with her past.
The Imo State-born creative director, who studied Communication and Media Studies at the University of Loughborough, UK, has shot the pilot episode and is eager to complete the 13-episode of Collide soon. The producer, who had also run a theatre company called Outside the Box, says she is in Nigeria to meet would-be investors.
In an interview with our correspondent, Nwachukwu says she is committed to using the arts to shed light on hidden things and effect change in the society. She thus hopes that the right funding will come for Collide.
She says, “The business is looking to raise approximately £160,000 (50 million), which we hope to raise from equity investors,” adding that the pilot version has been watched and critiqued by experts in television production from Middlesex University, UK, who have worked in producing what is described as world-famous programmes such as Hollyoaks and Eastenders.
Collide is to be broadcast on channels such as BEN TV, AIT International and ABN and is also to be broadcast in Nigeria, the USA and Canada.
Nwachukwu is a recipient of the Support Social Entrepreneurship Award, presented by the Higher Education Funding Council for England and Loughborough University Award and the Tier 1 Graduate Entrepreneur at ‘The Studio’ Loughborough University’s business development hub.
She is happy that Nollywood has made a lot of progress but stresses that practitioners need to pay more attention to details. Particularly, she believes that many contents are not thoroughly treated.
“There is so much we can do with some of the themes we explore,” she adds. “We need to work more on our stories. A lot of the films imitate Bollywood and Nollywood. It is not good when one is, for example, watching such films outside the country and some people are asking: ‘Why are they imitating this and that?’ Besides, issue of plagiarism may arise.”
Nwachukwu confesses that the story of Collide actually developed from her personal experience as a young girl. But she does not want to take the sail out of the soap – wind, really.
“Collide is about how we try to run away from our past. People love a clean slate, but somehow your past comes back to you.”
In the UK and other developed countries, dramas and films by Nigerian/African producers tend to circulate only among Nigerian audience. But Nwachukwu says the fault is that of producers who fail to enlarge the worldview of their works.
“Sometimes we constrict our stories. Another factor is the way the film is scripted and developed. If your story has not been made to connect to others, it will be impossible for others to connect with it.”
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