126 african appropriations
ment had begun to flourish a couple of years earlier (Furniss 2003). The
romantic melodrama is the dominant genre in Hausa videos. Inspired
by Indian films, which have been part and parcel of Hausa popular cul-
ture for several decades (Larkin 1997), young filmmakers borrowed the
foreign concepts of romance and love-marriage and contrasted them in
their plots with the traditional concept of arranged marriage, where par-
ents choose the marital partners for their children. “Thus, Hausa videos
depict open, teasing relationships between lovers who share emotional
time together, spend leisure time walking with one another, and declare
their love openly, all of which, in many ways, were foreign to Hausa gender
relations,” summarizes Brian Larkin (2008: 204). In line with Abdalla
Uba Adamu (2007, 2010, 2012) and Larkin (1997, 2008), who have written
extensively on Hausa videos, I suggest that one way of approaching these
movies is to see them as transcultural transpositions of Indian films. By
adapting Indian films to the social context of their own society, Hausa
filmmakers localized Bolly wood. Khusufi (Eclipse, 2003), a video film di-
rected by A li Nuhu, who is also Kany wood’s most prominent male actor,
and sometimes referred to as the Nigerian Shah Rukh Khan, may serve
to highlight the process of localization (see figure 4.2). Its plot develops
around the unlikely love story between a rich man’s son and the daughter
of a rural cattle breeder who achieves stardom as a studio singer in the
local video film industry. Though Khusufi is not a straight remake, it cer-
tainly draws inspiration for its plot, characters, and key scenes from the
Indian movie Ta a l (1999). In an inter v iew, scriptwriter Abubakar Baballe
Hayatu, a close friend of Khusufi’s director, explains the relationship be-
tween Hausa videos and Indian films:
The difference between Indian culture and our own is only on the
surface.... Together with A li Nuhu we watch Indian movies and then
think about what we would have to change so that the average Hausa
will respond to it by saying, “Yes, this is part of our culture” and not “For
God’s sake, this is not our culture.” Everything is adapted to such an
extent that it is in line with our culture. Sequences that do not violate our
culture or religion will remain unchanged. (Hayatu in Fim 11, 2002: 47; my
translation)The Indian template Ta a l is a movie typical of Bolly wood’s masala genre
(having a mix of movie styles), with a very prominent cast, spectacular