By Victor Christopher
A large crowd of movie enthusiasts turned out en masse on Friday to see the highly anticipated Kannywood movie “Mai Martaba” (Your Highness).
The intriguing movie, adjudged one of the best ever in northern Nigeria, finally premiered after two and a half years of pre-production and post-production.
Directed by multi-award-winning film producer and broadcaster, Prince Daniel (Aboki), Mai Martaba filmed in Daura, Katsina State, with a cast of around 500.
The movie, featuring Kannywood actor Adam A. Zango and other promising stars like Shugaba, Ghali Abdullah DZ, Muktar Aminu Haruna, and Auwalu Isma’il Marshal, showcases the rich cultural heritage of the region.
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Others include a little starlet, Fatima Mohammed, as Princess Sangaya, Tasi’u Ali as MaiKabaas Turaki, and Yahaya Sabo Abubakar as Wakili.
Speaking shortly after the premiere, the movie producer, Prince Daniel Aboki, said the northern film industry is struggling to compete with modern filmmaking.
According to him, Mai Martaba was conceptualized and produced to bridge this gap by scaling up production in the region so as to compete with its counterparts globally.
The mission seems to be yielding results, as the movie has been nominated for international awards.
“Mai Martaba has been selected for the Septimius Awards, an international award ceremony in Amsterdam, the Netherlands, showcasing feature films, documentaries, shorts, animations, television series, and screenplays.” Aboki said.
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Aboki, who is the Group Programme Director of Cool FM, Wazobia FM, Nigeria Info FM, Arewa Radio, and Kids FM, Nigeria, disclosed that 99.9 percent of the actors in the movie are new entrants.
“The only star actor in Mai Martaba happens to be Adam A. Zango because, initially, I wanted like 100 percent new actors.
“So all the actors in Mai Martaba, I built them because I wanted to tell a story on the strength of the story, not on the faces of celebrities,” he said.
He believes that such a move would expand the value chain of the creative industry, particularly in the northern part of Nigeria.
Aboki identified funding as one of his major challenges in the course of the production, saying Mai Martaba is arguably “the most expensive Hausa movie.”
“Over N25 million was spent on high-tech equipment alone because we had to bring most of it from Lagos, let alone the pre-, during-, and post-production costs.” He said.
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Packed with action and adventure, Mai Martaba is a tale of power, love, greed, and betrayal. Mai Martaba is a spin-off of Kasar Jallaba, an ongoing radio drama series on 93.1 Arewa Radio.
It tells the story of an ancient kingdom that once experienced a trade boom through the Trans-Saharan trade exchange but was short-lived due to a stiff internal power tussle amongst the powerful Agadashawa ruling clan.
The development prompted the collapse of the Agadashawa dynasty.
The collapse paved the way for the enthronement of King Jallaba of the Jallabawa clan at a time when uranium was discovered on Jallaba land named after the King.
To ensure the Agadashawa never returned to power, King Jallaba the 1st made a decree that became a tradition that all successive Emirs would voluntarily step down from the throne and name a successor from within the Jallaba clan to take over before old age.
On his deathbed, Sanaya, the son of the late King Jallaba, appointed his daughter, Princess Sangaya, to succeed him, a decision that degenerated into a fresh crisis.