Kannywood filmmaker Aminu Umar Mukhtar has called the bluff of the Kano state film censorship board which declared him wanted following the release of his movie titled ‘Makaranta’.
The moviemaker has refused to honour the board’s invitation over his latest movie titled ‘Makaranta’ which it described as against the religion and culture of the people of Kano.
Mukhtar who was reacting to being wanted by the board said that he remains unperturbed by the board’s invitation, insisting that he did nothing wrong.
He also faulted the said invitation, arguing that his movie is not only about the Hausa community and was not shot in Kano.
“When I heard that the board was looking for me, I was not disturbed at all because I did nothing wrong. My film is not about Kano or Hausa people alone, but about 17 languages featured in the project. Moreover, I did not shoot the movie in Kano state. So, I don’t understand why their blood is hot over the issue.
“My film is not only about s3x education, it captures other things such as female genital mutilation (FGM). With the project, we aim to create awareness about things that are happening not only in Hausa societies but others as well.”
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Recall that Na’abba Afakallah, the executive director of the board in a chat with BBC Pidgin said that the movie director has failed to honour the board’s invitation over the movie.
He stated that the movie director had in December promised to show up at its office in the new year but is yet to do so.
According to Afakallah, the board’s opposition to the project was due to its ‘immoral’ content and the fact that the project did not get the body’s approval.
“The truth is that the whole process of that film did not get the backing of the board. Even the promotion video currently circulating ought to have been vetted by us. That way, we can say remove this part or that, but the filmmaker did neither of that,” he said.
“Since he did not answer our invitation, we’ll take the next step because our board is about preserving the religion and culture of Kano and we won’t allow anyone to destroy that for us,” Afakallah added.
