Slumdog Millionaire in totality is not an Indian movie, its story and actors are, not the producers, director of photography, editor and director, and I have seen lots Indian movies I loved and felt should have gone to the Oscars but didn't.
OK, so it's not
totally an Indian movie. But do you think it would have attracted the big-money producers and other outside talent if not for the successful development of the Bollywood film industry? I still think you in your particular situation can learn more from the developing movie industries in other Third-World countries or post-war Japan and post-war Italy (even post-war Britain, France, and Russia, for that matter) than you can from Hollywood. Those other countries faced more of the problems you now face than has Hollywood in the last 79 years.
A good starting point would be to analyze why you loved certain Indian movies, even though they didn't get Oscar nominations.
. . . when Hollywood producers want to explore African story its the crime genre they have in mind: Sometimes in April, Tears of the Sun, Last king of scotland, Hotel Riwanda just to name a few . . .
Tears of the Sun was just a shoot-em 'up that didn't matter where it was made. It could have had Chuck Norris or Stalone rescuing missing POWs from Vietnam, or it could have been set in South America or Indonesia--anywhere with rainforests and revolutionaries. Don't even need the forest--could have been in a Middle East desert. It's not my idea of an "African" movie.
Last King of Scotland is about the relationship between two men from very different backgrounds. One just happens to the bloody dictator of an African nation. It could just as easily have been about the relationship between Russian dictator Joseph Stalin and his projectionist as it happened in one movie some years back.
All of the above African stories you suggested are either historical or crime related, don't you think Africans can do more? I sincerely wish they can. As I speak, I am working on a script in crime genre. . .
Now this is confusing. You ask if I don't think Africans can do more than crime (and I guess, too, historical) stories and then you say you're working on a crime story. Personally, I think I have greater faith in Africans' capabilities than you do.
For instance, I mention the conflict in your own country, and apparently all you see is war story. But there have been many great books and films about romances played out against the backdrop of war. Do you think
Gone With the Wind and
War and Peace and
Dr. Zhivago are just "war stories"? Is Romeo and Juliet a crime story because it's played out against a fatal feud between two families? With all the ethic atrocities involved in Bosnia some years ago, there was still a film about two people on opposite sides who fall in love. Same thing has been done between Protestants and Catholics in Ireland.
Hollywood made a lot of movies about combat during World War II. But it also made films about the home front during the war such as
Hail the Conquering Hero,
The Miracle of Morgan's Creek,
The Clock,
Since You Went Away,
The Best Years of Our Lives, with not one single combat scene in any of them.
Mrs. Miniver shows air battles overhead, an escaped Nazi pilot, and fatal attacks on civilians, but 99% of the film is about an English family coping with everyday life against the background of war.
As for the conflict in Nigeria, I can imagine two star-crossed lovers, one a delta native raised in poverty, uneducated but smart and wise in the ways of the world. The other comes from "a good family" likely with political connections, lived in a fine home, had a good education, becomes a technocrat working for one of the oil companies. They meet, fall in love, but they have different loyalties pulling at them as unrest grows and conflicts occur. Can their love survive? Is there a place and time for them somewhere, someday? The story isn't about the war--it's about
them! Could just as easily be about a father on one side of the line and a son or daughter on the other. The lovers could be a black African and a white African. Lots of possibilities. It's your country, your society, I'm sure you can think of other possibilities based on your special knowledge and background.
As for Liberia, let me tell you a more modern story related to that--there was an African-American female jazz singer a few years ago (I'm embarassed that I've momentarily forgotten her name, even though she was a favorite of mine, but hey, I'm old) who took a very hardline stand against the prejudice toward and mistreatment of African-Americans in this country. At one point she did a performance tour in Liberia and later wrote about how it felt like "coming home" to be a black person returning to Africa, something like the Jews coming to Israel from other parts of the world. She wrote about the friends she made there and how well she was treated and what a joy Liberia was after the intolerance in America. And then just a couple of years later, there was a revolution in Liberia and many of this singer's friends were tied to trees and shot or hacked to death in the streets. But before you dismiss this as just another war story, let me make this point: I suspect many of the African-Americans born and raised in the US have unrealistic expectations of an African "homeland." I suspect you may have witnessed yourself that black Americans don't know any more about Africa and Africans than white Americans. And I think there's a story in it. It doesn't have to be that bloody--could be a romance, could be a screwball comedy, could be a "ugly American" tale where misguided good intentions lead to tragedy.
I can also think of a possible plot pertaining to South Africa, but likely could be adapted to any Afican country. An interracial couple fall in love and face all sorts of hell in a white-dominated apartheid type of country. But then there's a transition. The white government steps down, a black government takes over. Do things get better for the interracial lovers? Do they get worse? Is there any change at all? What would they have to go through to adapt to first one set of circumstances and then a complete change? Does their love get stronger from the struggle, or do they break up? What do you think?
Mostly, I think you should quit worrying about what sells in the West and concentrate more on what story appeals to you. The best advice to any writer is write what you know. An interesting story is going to remain interesting across social and ethnic lines. Have faith in your ability to develop the story
you want to tell.
PS, the jazz singer whose name I couldn't recall earlier? Nina Simone--one hell of a singer!