Hello, hello. Welcome back to another edition of Nollywood Watch Weekly.
Every new week now has a new box office title and date being announced. Distributors are racking up gigs, and everywhere you look, the theatrical route is on someone’s mind. Genesis has Alaahun by Dare Olaitan. Cinemax has Biodun Stephen’s new film. Film One has locked in Kamo State for his cinema debut. Nile is bringing OJ to the big screen. And Blue Pictures is very much on point with a classic, distributing Mike Bamiloye’s Agbara Nla as it heads to cinemas this October.
Consumers have more exciting options than ever — if only they show up, in this Tinubu economy.
5 Major Headlines To Know
- Osas Ighodaro is Not Leaving Nollywood for Bollywood — Lebara Play Unveils Imported Bahu Trailer
The trailer for Imported Bahu, the new Lebara Play telco-backed micro-drama created by Hamisha Ahuja, has dropped, and the internet has already written its own headline: Osas Ighodaro is leaving Nollywood for Bollywood. It is a funny narrative, and it is going viral fast. It is also not true.
Imported Bahu places Osas Ighodaro inside an Indian family setting, extending the cross-cultural premise that made Namaste Wahala a notable streaming experiment into the micro-drama format. But the series itself is made for African audiences, distributed on a new African telco platform called Lebara, built around an African viewing experience. The Bollywood joke is good content. It is not the actual story. The actual story is a telco-backed scripted drama continuing to find new cross-cultural premises to work with, and Osas Ighodaro is taking on a role that plays well precisely because it is unexpected.
- FreeTV Launches June 17 — What the New Model Actually Solves
Nigeria officially launched FreeTV on June 17, the centrepiece of the Digital Switch Over (DSO) project that has dragged on for roughly 17 years and cost about ₦60 billion in public funds. The platform offers over 100 channels, including dedicated Yoruba, Hausa, and Igbo language stations, through a hybrid model combining Digital Terrestrial Television, satellite reception via NigComSat, and a mobile app.
President Tinubu approved a ₦10 billion fund in August 2024 to revive the project, which shifted strategy toward a satellite first approach using NigComSat’s infrastructure instead of building out expensive terrestrial towers. Officials are projecting the wider DSO rollout could generate ₦600 billion in economic value and reach 40 million households.
Nigeria has tried this before. A free satellite TV project first launched in January 2019 under President Buhari, led by then Minister of Information Lai Mohammed, funded by the Chinese government and targeting 1,000 villages. It quietly faded without explanation. Current Minister of Information Mohammed Idris has said the earlier attempt failed partly because the set top boxes were encrypted and expensive, with coverage limited to about eight pilot cities.
The new free window is set to run for at least 18 months while adoption ramps up, before a fee structure presumably follows. What happens after that window closes is the part nobody in government communications is volunteering yet.
3. Gbenga Kayode Launches The Grit on YouTube July 3
Gbenga Kayode, the former Big Brother Naija producer, is launching The Grit, a new unscripted reality series, on YouTube starting July 3. The move continues a pattern of television veterans bringing studio level production discipline to YouTube as a primary platform rather than a secondary one. Kayode’s BBNaija background gives him a specific advantage here: he understands how to build a format that keeps an audience returning episode after episode, which is the exact discipline unscripted YouTube content requires to succeed. Will audiences watch is the big question?
4. Agbara Nla Heads to Cinemas October 1 — Mount Zion’s Cinema Debut
Agbara Nla: The Return is confirmed for an October 1, 2026, cinema release, and the film carries a notable distinction: it marks Mount Zion Faith Ministries’ cinema debut, in partnership with Circuits and Blue Pictures. Mount Zion has built one of the largest and most loyal audiences in Nigerian Christian film history through direct-to-video and church distribution. Taking that audience into a commercial cinema partnership is a meaningful test of whether faith-based content with an established fanbase converts into theatrical numbers.
5. Remi and Nneoma Premieres — A Ruth and Naomi-inspired Story
Remi and Nneoma will hit the big screen on June 26th, and the film draws its emotional and narrative structure from the Biblical story of Ruth and Naomi. Faith-based titles in Nigeria have a long and commercially proven history, and adapting a story with this much built-in moral and emotional resonance is a deliberate choice. The premiere launches the film’s theatrical run with a clear identity already established.
6. Aba Blues Didn’t Work in Cinemas. Kava Is Betting It Works Now.
Aba Blues arrives on Kava on June 25. Written and directed by Jack’enneth Opukeme and produced by Barbara Babarinsa, the film follows Amara, a newlywed tailor in Aba, Abia State, caught between her husband Uzor and Dirim, the first love who returns to reclaim her years after walking away. Betrayal, ambition, resilience, and the pull of old love against present commitment run through the story. The cast includes Angel Anosike, Jide Kene Achufusi, and Prince Nelson Enwerem. It is a beautiful film that simply did not find its audience on the big screen, grossing less than ₦60 million theatrically.
Kava gives it another shot at hitting the cultural nerve it deserved to hit the first time. For anyone catching it for the first time on the platform, Shock Africa’s interview with lead actress Angel Anosike — The Actor’s Chair Episode 1 — is worth watching alongside it. The conversation gives context the film alone does not: who she is, what she brought to the role, and what carrying a lead performance like this actually involved. Watch the film. Then watch the interview.
By The Numbers
Ajosepo 2 has barely crossed ₦150 million and has fallen out of the weekly top five.
Part 1 was a box office hit, grossing ₦257.25 million in 2024, and now streams exclusively on EbonyLife ON Plus. But the streaming run never expanded the franchise’s audience pool the way a hit at that scale should have. That gap shows up directly in the sequel’s numbers. Ajosepo 2 inherited a returning key cast and the goodwill of a proven hit, yet has not matched the momentum Part 1 suggested it should carry into a second instalment.
Week on week, demand has weakened rather than built. The bigger question is timing. The franchise had real momentum after Part 1 and a window to grow its base before the follow-up. It may have arrived too soon to capitalise on either.
Reaction Radar
The Polygamist Is a Hit Across Africa — But Some Nigerians Are Sitting This One Out
The Polygamist has become a genuine continental hit, drawing strong viewership numbers across African markets on Netflix. But the reception inside Nigeria carries a complication the streaming numbers don’t capture. The South African production is landing at the same time as renewed tension over xenophobic attacks on Nigerians living in South Africa, and a section of Nigerian viewers has been vocal about declining to watch South African content right now as a result. It is a reasonable position, and it sits uncomfortably alongside the show’s broader continental success. The numbers say hit. The mood inside one of the continent’s biggest audiences says something more complicated.
What I’m Watching: Scratch, Directed by Clarence Peters
Scratch is a new drama thriller series directed by Clarence Peters and written by Olumide Olamigoke. The premise follows five dysfunctional housemates whose carefully maintained public personas mask individual battles hidden from the world. Peters has spent his career defining the visual language of Nigerian music videos. A scripted drama thriller is a different discipline entirely, and a premise built around the gap between public image and private struggle gives him real material to work with.
Marketing ad: Folagade Banks Promo Videos For “Mama Deola A Wedding Story”
Folagade Banks is promoting the new Mama Deola feature with a steady marketing rollout — cast reveal videos and even unedited behind-the-scenes footage from the wedding scene, which is being positioned as the biggest ever shot for a Nigerian feature film. Capturing on-set designs before release is a confident marketing choice. It aims to tease audiences, and it gives the comedy drama lovers exactly the kind of content it likes to see. Whether the wedding scene lives up to that billing is now part of the pre-release conversation.
GLOBAL SPOTLIGHT
Google Invests $75 Million in A24
Google DeepMind has invested approximately $75 million in A24, marking the first time Google has taken a stake in a film studio. The investment is tied to a multi-year research partnership, not a content or library deal — Google does not gain access to A24’s catalogue or its data. The collaboration will see DeepMind researchers work directly with A24 filmmakers to build AI-powered tools for editing, storyboarding, and visual effects, with A24 retaining full creative control over how those tools are used.
A24 has built its identity on a distinct creative voice across titles like Everything Everywhere All At Once and its recent hit Backrooms, and the studio’s leadership has been explicit that this deal is not about making films cheaper or faster. It is about giving filmmakers new tools without surrendering authorship. For the African film industry watching from a distance, the structure of the deal is worth studying as closely as the dollar figure: AI investment that empowers the people making the work, rather than replacing them, is a model that could travel.
CLOSE OFF
This edition spans the full range of where Nigerian content is heading: free television with an expiration date, AI experimentation in public view, James Omokwe keeps his streak with an eighth commission from Africa Magic, a faith ministry’s first cinema partnership, and a telco-backed micro drama crossing cultural lines. Call of My Life keeps climbing. The industry keeps building in every direction at once.
We will be here for all of it.
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