Mr Segun Oyekunle, Managing Director, Abuja Film Village International Ltd, on Tuesday said plans were underway to establish a film village in Abuja.

Oyekunle said this at the Bank of Industry colloquium entitled: ``The infrastructural requirements for the Nigerian Film Industry.”

The Colloquium was organised by the Nigeria Film Corporation (NFC) in Abuja at the 5th Edition of the Zuma Film Festival as part of the dialogue toward reaching a new policy for the Nigeria Film Industry.

He said that the film village when completed would provide infrastructure for the Nigerian filmmaker as well as for international filmmakers.

In an interview ,Oyekunle noted that the establishment of the film village, which had been approved by the government, was at the concept design stage.

He said the village would provide infrastructures like equipment for film making, studio for film and television, equipment for music and photography.

It would also have a shopping centre, polo club, a university for film, television and radio.

``It would attract international film makers and with this revenue could be generated to produce films here in the country.

``The main focus of establishing the film village is to provide 50 components of infrastructure for film making like the equipment, studio for film and television, equipment for music, photography.

``We got a land of about 5,000 hectares a combination of Asokoro and Maitama that’s how big it would be,” he said.

He said that when the Federal Executive Council (FEC) had approved the concept design, money would be available to complete it.

Oyekunle thanked Sen. Bala Mohammed, the Minister of FCT, for wanting to push forward the concept and see to its completion.

At the colloquium, he said that the Nigeria Film Industry should work toward attaining the standard of Hollywood.

He noted that the responsibility of the film industry should be placed more in the hands of the Ministry of Trade and Investment than the Ministry of Information.

``We have made the recommendation over the years, the Ministry of Information’s preoccupation is serving the propaganda and the information needs of the government.

``Responsibility should have been placed in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry or even the Ministry of Culture than the Ministry of Information.

``Film making has never been a priority for the Ministry of Information and it cannot be held accountable because it was never set up to accomplish those goals,” Oyekunle said.

He said that lack of capital had slowed down the Nigerian Film Industry and the number of films being produced had decreased.

Oyekunle said that the cameras used in the industry would be rated as home video camera in Hollywood hence the need to upgrade to digital.

Oyekunle noted that the digital film making had taken Hollywood beyond what it had been and so the digital revolution had given the industry the level playing field with other industries in the world.

He advised film makers that playing their movies in the cinema first before releasing it to the market would give them at least 50 per cent of the money spent in making those films.

Oyekunle said that Nollywood had invested its effort, money, creativity and had achieved a lot which had brought it to the stage of asking what the way forward was.

He said infrastructure like the digital camera, talent, creativity, location and capital had helped Hollywood attain the level it attained.

Oyekunle therefore proposed that there was the need to rise beyond the peak with good technology and commercialisation.