‘Blood Sisters,’ first Nigerian series on Netflix changes people’s view of Nollywood

Nigeria: Nollywood industry’s first mini-series, “Blood Sisters”, on Netflix has changed people’s perspective regarding the Nigerian film industry. The industry was earlier known as a small production with poor camera quality, inexperienced actors, and poor sound quality.

The thriller and crime series, curring being streamed on the OTT platform, Netflix, revolved around the story of two best friends, Kemi(Nancy Isime) and Sarah (Ini Dima-Okoje), who become fugitives after the husband-to-be of Sarah, Kola (Deyemi Okanlawon) disappears on their marriage day.

The series has received good comments and reviews from viewers and critics, and one of the major reasons behind it is the presence of Zelipa Zulu, the team, who is a South African film and television writer.

Zulu stated that though she had worked as a consultant outside the country of South Africa, her name was given to be part of the Blood Sister project as the producer of the series, Mo Abodu, asked her that they wanted to make something authentically Nigerian, even though she is not a Nigerian.

“They stated that even though I am not Nigerian, a story is a story, and they told that I fit what they were attempting to achieve”.

Zulu, whose first story writing was for a feature film with Mfundi Mvundla, Blues of Azania, a poignant tale of a Zimbabwean illegal immigrant trying to make it in South Africa, stated that it was quite challenging to get to the essentials while writing Blood Sisters.

She further said they also had virtual viewing tours of the areas that they were shooting at just to get the look and feel just to generate ideas to enable possible scenarios because a location can inspire a storyline.

In South Africa, Zulu has written and devised award-winning shows, including Generations, Rhythm City as well as Isibaya, among others.