A Nigerian film maker hopes Nigeria’s burgeoning film industry can collaborate with India’s to compete with Hollywood, according to a Xinhua/IANS report in BusinessStandard.

Abuja, Nigeria, recently played host to its first Indian Film Festival, screening a number of Hindi movies including “Lagaan,” “Pardes,” “Chak De! India,” “Stanley Ka Dabba,” “Jodhaa-Akbar,” “Sholay,” “Devdas,” “Dhoom 2” and “3 Idiots.”

“I am just excited at the prospect of a future collaboration between a Nigerian filmmaker and one from India,” said Femi Adeniye, a Lagos-based Nigerian film producer, in an IANS interview. “Indian filmmakers have the know-how and the experience and that can combine to be a threat to the Hollywood industry.”

India is one of the largest film-producing countries in the world, Xinhua/IANS reports. Indian films are popular in Kano, Kaduna and other Northern Nigerian states, according to the report. Local channels regularly telecast Indian films.

India is Nigeria’s second-largest trading partner and Nigeria is India’s largest trading partner in Africa. A population of 168 million and considerable revenue from oil exports make Nigeria the largest market in Africa for Indian exports.

Bilateral annual trade turnover was more than $17.3 billion in 2011-2012, growing by 34
percent, Xinhua/IANS reports. In 2013, Indian exports grew 1.33 percent but bilateral trade shrank to $16.8 billion.

The two countries have a shared relationship and similarities in an enterprising film culture, according to Patience Faka Jonathan, Nigeria’s First Lady, who attended the film festival. The film industry is an avenue for growth, she said.

“Just like Nigeria with a population of over 160 million people, India is equally blessed with a huge population of over 1.2 billion people. We can therefore imagine what this translates into economic terms,” she said.