Battle Over Two Brides And A Baby

Blessing Effiom Egbe, producer of the film, Two Brides And A Baby, accuses Silverbird Cinemas and Okhma Global Limited, a movie distribution company, of fraud

At the official premiere of the movie, Two Brides And A Baby, in Lagos, last November, Blessing Effiom Egbe brimmed with optimism. The romantic comedy she had just produced had sparked huge interest in the crowd that saw the premiere. That optimism was sustained for almost three months by reports of large crowds that went to see the movie when it was shown at Silverbird Cinemas in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Uyo and Abuja. She looked forward to quickly reaping dividends on her investment in the movie.

But four months after, that dream of quick dividends is looking unrealisable. And Egbe is already sore about that. She is alleging that Okhma Global Limited, a movie distribution company that operates as Homelands Distribution and owned by one Mary Ephraim-Ita, connived with Silverbird Cinemas to pay her considerably less than what she should have earned from the screening of the movie at the cinemas.

The producer had engaged Homelands Distribution as agent of Two Brides and A Baby, which officially opened in Nigerian cinemas on 25 November 2011. The movie was screened for at least eight weeks, claimed Egbe, to packed halls at the various cinemas in the four cities. However, on 14 January, Egbe was informed through a letter from Homelands that her movie had closed in Silverbird Cinemas, Abuja on 13 January. At this point, she awaited the return of her materials–the Master Hard Drives and DVDs–that were sent to those cinemas and payment. While awaiting the delivery of the materials, she alleged that the same movie was still running at the Silverbird Abuja SEC, as at 2 February 2012. Egbe claims to have proof of this.

“On 1 February, a fan called me to inform me that she was watching Two Brides And A Baby. My first thought was that my movie had been pirated. I asked her where she bought it from, but she told me she was watching it at Silverbird Cinemas in Abuja SEC branch,” Egbe told TheNEWS.

She later spoke to some people, who advised her to get proof that the movie was shown. The next day, Egbe said she phoned some of her friends in Abuja to go to the cinema and buy tickets. They did. This bred suspicion in Egbe that Silverbird may have made a copy of her film. With the proof in her possession, Egbe sent a message to Ephraim-Ita, the distributor, to find out the status of her film’s Master Hard Drives and DVDs.

Egbe told this medium that the distributor replied that the materials would be handed over the next day (3 February) at 4 p.m. But when the producer’s husband, Michael Egbe, got to Homelands’ office at Lekki, Lagos, to pick them up, he was handed only three of seven sets of hard drives and DVDs allocated to each of the seven cinemas. Egbe said Ephraim-Ita had also promised her that payments would be made on 10 February. But as at press time, she claimed she was yet to receive any money.

“It was apparent that the company’s records were either incomplete or distorted or somebody had resolved to breach my copyright to the movie…I now had legitimate reasons to question and disbelieve her (Ephraim-Ita) earlier financial daily sales report, which she computed and sent to me on an Excel sheet and the opening and closing dates of the movie at the respective cinemas. Moreover, her failure to make any effort to reply me gives me great cause to worry. Therefore I must fight for justice. There are documents to support every claim I have made,” a distraught Egbe told TheNEWS.

And on 13 February, Egbe asked her lawyers, Ivy Practice, to write Ephraim-Ita. In the letter, the producer made some demands: “That the contract, agreement and or other terms/conditions entered into with cinemas on behalf of our client be forwarded to us immediately. Specifically that an accurate and correct report on the opening and closing dates of the movie in respective cinemas be made available to us. We have assumed that the earlier report was either incomplete or sent to our client in error; that the outstanding hard drives and or CDs be made available to us immediately. For the unreturned hard drives and CDs, we shall compute date of closing from the date your company returns them to our client,.. We write this letter to your company as a matter of fair notice, formal courtesy and best practice and we expect feedback from your company on or before close of business tomorrow 14 February 2012.”

The letter showed that it was recieved by a staff of Homelands Distribution named Victoria Agbor. But no reply was received until the deadline expired. This made Egbe’s lawyers to write to the cinemas directly for their own records. Again, the letters attracted no reply. In exasperation, Egbe instituted a law suit against Homelands Distribution and Silverbird Cinemas. She claimed that she invested N15 million on the movie project, with N11 million coming from other investors. “I am under pressure to pay my executive producers proceeds from their investment and to make good sales from DVD and reap from other sales avenues,” she said.

She said her contract with the investors ended in January, which brought pressure on her to pay them back.When TheNEWS contacted Ephraim-Ita, her response was a curt “no comment”. But Ayo Sewanu, an Executive Assistant to the Silverbird Group President, Ben Murray-Bruce, told TheNEWS that his organisation was shocked when it read Egbe’s allegations on Twitter.

According to him, the claims she made against the organisation were false. Sewanu said the Siverbird Group worked according to the agreement it had with the distributors of the film.

“Everything she has said is total falsehood. We never had an agreement with her, but her distributor, Homelands Distribution. I am not sure if she had seen the copies of sales reports of the movie. We have never defrauded her or anyone in the industry. All the records concerning the screening of that movie are with us and we are ready to prove our case whenever there is a need,” Sewanu said.