Kene Mkparu: The man who left lucrative job in Europe to populate Nigeria with cinemas

By Fred Iwenjora

Does he regret not being a  doctor?Kene Mkparu shocked his friends and family when he dumped a lucrative job as General Manager of a big cinema chain in the United Kingdom to return to Nigeria to take a chance on Nigeria’s fledgling cinema entertainment business which had been dismissed by many as unprofitable.

Read about his unbridled tenacity of purpose which has seen Nigerians trouping out to watch films again. Excerpts:

Many believe that Nigerian cinema culture died long ago…what inspired you to get involved in what many believed  was hopeless?

My inspiration stems from my knowledge of history of the early explorers who came to Africa. They made quite bold steps to leave Europe to come to Africa with all its adverse conditions. For me it was also a bold step to leave the United Kingdom to come and do cinema in Nigeria. But we actually had studied the Nigerian behavior before venturing into it. We noticed from the popularity of early cinemas that Nigerians have always loved cinema entertainment but they were not getting it the way they would have loved.

We also knew we were getting into a very uncertain environment. Only our research and study gave us assurances. Every one hears that Nigeria is not safe for everything and no one goes out at night. We also heard these. But when we looked deeply, we found out that some Nite Clubs were doing well. People would go to all night vigils in churches, dance all night at crusades and begin to drive home late without problem. We were convinced that if things were done right, cinema entertainment would work. It worked before in the 70s and 80s. At the end of the day, we trusted God to take the decision.

You seem to have overtaken other providers of cinema entertainment with your many Film houses across the nation…

Aah we have not overtaken any one o. But in truth we worked to set up eleven operational cinema houses across Nigeria. The twelfth was recently closed for logistic reasons.

We opened the first two Film house cinemas in December, 2012. We had planned to open 25 in six years but twelve have been opened in four years, leaving us with only two years. However, we are on course even though the economy has slowed down due to the recession. The Nigerian cinema market is growing while the culture of watching films at cinemas is also growing. What may change is segmentation. You may not have to put same kind of cinema in Lekki Lagos as in Agbani road in Enugu or what you have at Zoo road, Kano as in Nyanya Abuja. I foresee a segmentation of cinema houses for segmented demographics.

You even have cinema house in Kano in the north of Nigeria…Boko Haram issues did not deter you?

There are still people living in Kano  where we have a cinema and going about their daily businesses. I am not saying Boko Haram is not a major concern as well as other security concerns in other parts of Nigeria. We simply looked into the place and the people’s behavior. The restaurants are still selling, fast food chains too.

The malls are still operational, Shoprite as well as Game. So Film House is still operating in Kano. Yes without Boko Haram, it may do as far better than it is doing now. There are about 15m people living in Kano and we continue to try to reach them more and more. Even the old cinemas in Kano are still on and once they have a big film, you see the people queuing up round the clock to see it. Note also that there are several diverse things to deal with across Nigeria including hooligans and all.

In the past few years, how could you rate the viewing preference of the film houses across Nigeria?

Film bookings are made with particular attention to the audience preference. In the north of Nigeria we show Kannywood films and Bollywood films because they are well accepted while in the south west, we show more of Yoruba films. But we have seen that Hollywood action films are still the biggest attraction at all times.

General Box office(GBO) seems to be the new word in Nigeria today….

Yes it means general box office. Box office is that section of the theatre where guests go to buy tickets. But it is also refers to how much money is made from ticket sales at a cinema. Gross Box office refers to how many people and how much money is made from a particular movie. In fact there is need for enlightenment about the cinema and its development in Nigeria especially in areas like Lagos, Kano , PH  etc.

Your dream of giving West Africa its first IMAX cinema experience recently came to pass…

I trust that Africans love cinema and theatre entertainment but there have not been companies developing cinema across the area. Of course you well know that West Africans are well connected and are in tune with all the things happening around the world at large. So people have one way or the other heard about IMAX this and IMAX that. So I must say it has been an absolute delight to have set up the  first in West Africa and not only that  but it is also being adjudged as among the top three IMAX theatres in the whole world.

Adjudged by whom please?

By IMAX itself. They said what we designed and set up in Lagos more than met and even exceeded their expectation and that makes us proud.

It must have cost so much?

Of course it did cost money. Real money. But I don’t think it is about the cost and about the money alone but about the effective application of such funds. Some people can spend X amount of money and still not get things right but some others could spend smaller fraction of that same amount and still make it look heavenly.

Yes, the way we applied the funding has made our Filmhouse  Imax theatre look even far more better than what you find in many places.  Why I say these is that the look and feel of IMAX is out of this earth. The seating, the ambience, the lighting, the comfort cooling, the relationship between the audience and the screens all make IMAX  a little more special.

IMAX is a combination of superior picture, superior sound and film presentation. It is immersive. You are watching a film yet you feel you are in that same film. It is the largest film format and very amazing to behold. If you go to watch a film mastered in IMAX and later go to watch on a normal cinema, you will readily see that they are two different things.

Has it been easy getting these big things done in Nigeria where we listen to the regular chorus that nothing is possible?

It is great challenge to do new things in many societies Nigeria inclusive.  No doubt we have faced these challenges squarely like many pioneers would do. We have continued to do much education and enlightenment and marketing of the ideas we bring.

What do you think about the progress of Nollywood if any?

There is no doubt that Nollywood has grown and upped its standard about ten times over. Quality is no more the issue. People are already shooting on high quality cameras and the next thing is the continuous improvement of technicalities in sounds and all.

Nigerian films are currently making more money from the cinemas than they were making before. Last year, Nigerian films were at Toronto International film festival. I don’t think that Nigerians realize the impact of that invasion of Toronto film festival by Nollywood. Many Nollywood films were recognized.  If you try to quantify all that happened in Toronto film festival in 2016 and its values in the next few years, it may accrue to over $100m.

But we need to begin to educate ourselves to how it translates to value. We need to engage government even if informally so they could understand what Nollywood is saying. I strongly believe that they are getting the vibe already. The minister of information under whose ministry our industry falls seems to understand. He tries to attend every Nollywood matter and the more he attends, the more he gets to know it better and the more the industry benefits.

You are a beneficiary of Bank of Industry Nollyfund like many other practitioners…but  many still see the conditions as stringent?

The problem with Nigeria and Nigerians is that we dwell much on assumptions and believe so much in hear say and rumors. There is no doubt that BOI is doing huge things for the industry. Nollywood has been crying out for financing and the Bank has opened up its vaults without collateral. That is unheard of and you still hear people who may not have even gone to ask questions about how to access this fund going about saying it is hard to get.  Any one giving out money to some other person must get some documentation processed. I don’t see this process as difficult. It is not a free money or grant. It is a loan for Christ sake so documentation is necessary. Some cinema houses, some film makers and some studios have already taken support. I advise anyone who is still very cynical to go to BOI and ask questions. One of the basic problems is that we have built the industry on other people’s monies and grants and it has become difficult for us to switch to being corporate.

You would have been a medical doctor?

When I sit with some of my friends who are now surgeons, I recall those years at pre med school. One of them is Dr Beneth Omalu who has become so popular in the United States that Will Smith played him in a movie Concussion. He had developed a big medical breakthrough that his biopic was done with Will Smith playing him. I am very proud of some of those classmates of mine.

Do you miss that profession?

Not really. The film industry is more exciting. I studied Biochemistry and Zoology and also did pre-med with hope of going off to US to go for medicine where the requirement included a first degree. But by the time I completed my first degree, my mind had switched over to research scientist. I moved over to England to study Bio-pharmaceutical sciences known to many as Toxicology. It was while I was doing this that I got a job in a cinema house and everything changed. I loved the management of cinemas so I stayed there rising from the low to becoming the manager for years. I also had to do a masters degree course in business system analysis but did not go to IT world. There is so much excitement in the film industry. Even doctors call us for tickets to watch blockbuster movies at IMAX

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