I was hospitalised after my N500m movie leaked online – Toyin Abraham
Award-winning Nollywood actress Toyin Abraham has revealed that the illicit release of her new film, Malaika, caused her to experience panic attacks, which led to her hospitalisation.
December 15, 2023, saw the exclusive theatrical release of the lavish film.
Abraham, who described how she happened to stumble upon the film on a social media platform, claimed that after watching it, she nearly went insane.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday at the Nigeria Police Force's Federal Investigation Department in Alagbon, Ikoyi, where some people detained in relation to the film's illegal distribution were displayed, the actress bemoaned spending nearly N500 million on filming a film only to discover that it had been leaked to the public.
Award-winning Nollywood actress Toyin Abraham has revealed that the illicit release of her new film, Malaika, caused her to experience panic attacks, which led to her hospitalisation.
December 15, 2023, saw the exclusive theatrical release of the lavish film.
Abraham, who described how she happened to stumble upon the film on a social media platform, claimed that after watching it, she nearly went insane.
Speaking to reporters on Wednesday at the Nigeria Police Force's Federal Investigation Department in Alagbon, Ikoyi, where some people detained in relation to the film's illegal distribution were displayed, the actress bemoaned spending nearly N500 million on filming a film only to discover that it had been leaked to the public.
"If you look at me, you will see that I'm not really okay," she stated. I had to leave the hospital, I had to. I've been experiencing panic episodes. Filming a movie near N500mi is not an easy task, as you can see from the trailer.
"I was wondering, Am I dreaming, when I watched my movie and another movie. "No, you are not dreaming," they replied. Subsequently, they uploaded it to Telegram and announced that they would upload it by 12 p.m. When I clicked on the link and saw Malaika, I felt as though my entire world was ending in front of me. I wanted to go insane.
“You know as a woman, I was crying and my manager said, ‘Don’t worry’, and he started making calls to my godparents, my husband and the Filmone team. So we started calling tech guys and how to get to Google. They had to call Telegram. So the next thing, they started breaking the links. Google started to send emails telling us that they had broken the links.”
Abraham recalled how she was desperate to the level where she had to start begging one of the culprits on Telegram.
She also claimed to have expressed surprise that “one of those guys had to tell me to send a mail to a particular email and I said, ‘On my film!’
"This is my life; this is all I do, and I don't know what to do. For this reason, I made the decision to take the fight against piracy upon myself, my manager, and Filmone. This is not about me, Malaika, or any other movie you see in theatres; rather, it is about the creative industry. Since this is the only thing we do, it is about the entertainment industry.
The actress went on to say that the development had cost her a lot of money because people had chosen to hold off on seeing the film until it was made available for free online.
"Even on social media, you will see people saying, oh, we won't go to the movies. I have lost a lot because of this." We'll bide our time until the film opens. It goes without saying that anyone who is waiting for something specific will not watch the film; even fans from other countries will declare that they are waiting for the meeting to happen. But it's alright, I'm doing great. These days, money is not a factor. I'm happy about it since it's about fighting for a cause that benefits the entertainment and creative industries," she continued.
