The China Mail - Nollywood meets Bollywood: filmmaker fuses Indian, Nigerian culture

But the film industries of the two countries, each regional behemoths, have rarely crossed cultures.

Indian-Nigerian filmmaker Hamisha Daryani Ahuja, however, did just that, naming her first movie -- aimed at bringing together the world's two largest film industries, Bollywood and Nollywood -- "Namaste Wahala".

"Nollywood has grown up on Bollywood," the Mumbai-born, Lagos-raised Ahuja told AFP in an interview, referring to the popularity of Bollywood films in Nigeria.

"How come they never come together?" she said.

Her film became a global hit when it was released by Netflix during the Covid-19 pandemic -- signalling the start of a collaboration between the two massive movie sectors.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi even mentioned the film during his visit to Nigeria in late 2024.

And another "Namaste Wahala" film is now in the works, Ahuja revealed.

Since the 2020 release of her debut film, Ahuja has also had a Netflix series called "Postcards" and is preparing to premiere "Simi and Friends" this year.

With no formal movie-making training, "Namaste Wahala" -- a cross-cultural rom-com whose title means "Hello trouble" -- was "her schooling" in film, she said.

Shot in Lagos, it is about an Indian investment banker who falls in love with a Nigerian lawyer -- and their parents' struggle to accept their union.

A potpourri of languages, actors switch between English, Pidgin and Hindi.

"I decided to jump in without a thought," she recalled during a recent interview in the bustling mega-metropolis of Lagos, where she lives.

- 'Our cultures are so similar' -

India and Nigeria combined are probably the world's biggest diaspora, "we have mass populations but more than that, but maybe less tangible, our culture is so loud", the 41-year-old said.

Nollywood is the second-most prolific film industry in the world after Bollywood in the sheer number of films it pumps out each year.

Ahuja, a mother of two young boys, is putting the final touches to the animated "Simi and Friends", which is also packed with Indo-Nigerian cultural content.

The protagonist is a toddler, the daughter of a Nigerian father and an Indian mother. Her tiffin has plantain and samosas, the two countries' staple snacks.

"It's fun, it's light," Ahuja said. "I'm bringing India and Nigeria together because it just works. People love it. People see themselves."

"Our cultures are so similar. And I think that is also why Nigerians grew up on Bollywood because they recognise it, it's more conservative, more family tradition, more values" than Hollywood in the United States, she said.

- Afrobeats -

While not a direct sequel, her new "Namaste Wahala" movie includes heavy doses of Afrobeats -- a major Nigerian cultural export and one of the world's most influential and fast-growing musical genres.

"I am now marrying modern day with the 90s for 'Namaste Wahala 2.0'," Ahuja said.

She added she was confident the Afrobeats music featured in her new production would also strike a chord with Indian audiences, recalling having heard Nigerian singer Rema's hit "Calm Down" played in a Mumbai hotel lobby.

Asked whether she had encountered challenges in producing cross-culturally, she acknowledged that it could throw up surprises.

An Indian actor in one of the casts expected a "vanity van" akin to a five-star hotel to hang out, change and do make-up between shoots, she said.

Such a thing didn't exist in Lagos at the time.

Looking for Nigerian food while on a shoot in India is not always easy either.

"When I took my Nigerian actors to India, we had to go and source Nigerian food because the palette, even though we all like spice, it's not the same," Ahuja said.

Aside from being the director, producer and at times actor, "I'm also the translator, and not necessarily only the language, but culture" too, she added.

Z.Huang--ThChM