LAGOS: The greeting “namaste” associated with yoga and the Pidgin word for trouble, “wahala”, widely used across the world thanks to Afrobeats, speaks to Indian and Nigerian influences on the English language.

But the film industries of the two countries, each a regional behemoth, have rarely crossed cultures.

Indian-Nigerian filmmaker Hamisha Daryani Ahuja, however, did just that, naming her first movie — aimed at bringing together the world’s two largest film industries, Bollywood and Nollywood — Namaste Wahala. “Nollywood has grown up on Bollywood,” the Mumbai-born, Lagos-raised Ahuja said in an interview, referring to the popularity of Bollywood films in Nigeria.

“How come they never come together?” she said. Her film became a global hit when it was released by Netflix during the COVID-19 pandemic — signalling the start of a collaboration between the two massive movie sectors.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi even mentioned the film during his visit to Nigeria in late 2024.

And another Namaste Wahala film is now in the works, Ahuja revealed.

Since the 2020 release of her debut film, Ahuja has also had a Netflix series called Postcards and is preparing to premiere Simi and Friends this year.

With no formal movie-making training, Namaste Wahala — a cross-cultural rom-com whose title means “Hello trouble” — was “her schooling” in film, she said.

Shot in Lagos, it is about an Indian investment banker who falls in love with a Nigerian lawyer — and their parents’ struggle to accept their union. A potpourri of languages, actors switch between English, Pidgin, and Hindi. “I decided to jump in without a thought,” she recalled during a recent interview in the bustling mega-metropolis of Lagos, where she lives.

India and Nigeria combined are probably the world’s biggest diaspora, “we have mass populations, but more than that, but maybe less tangible, our culture is so loud”, the 41-year-old said.

Published in Dawn, January 8th, 2026