How we started Nollywood
You have been in the film business for very long. How would you describe your experience?I could say tough, rough, stressful, and rewarding. In the sense that the beginning was not easy. It was not like what was going to be when you get instantenous reward. That is how we always think of it but […]
You have been in the film business for very long. How would you describe your experience?
I could say tough, rough, stressful, and rewarding. In the sense that the beginning was not easy. It was not like what was going to be when you get instantenous reward. That is how we always think of it but that’s not what we had. It was tough, it was rough. Before I went into full time acting, I did a little of rehearsals here and there, going from Ajegunle to theatres to NTA because I went to University of Port Harcourt to read Theatre Arts and then we went into the film business proper, shooting the first film that brought into limelight what we today know as Nollywood. It’s been quite challenging and rewarding at the same time.
I think it is interesting that you had the courage to go into films before it became what it is today like you did with Living in Bondage and the others. What pushed you into it?
First, I am not the producer, I was an actor in it and being that we had just come out of school then and our heads were still fresh, wanting to do something and do it right, we contributed our own quota in the area of the scripting because what Living in Bondage had when we got there was just situations, there was no script so we just sat down, had a roundtable, gave it a body and had a script conference and gave it flesh. What pushed me into it was the passion, it wasn’t even the money like I have been telling people. It was just the love I have for the arts. I tell people if there is anything called the next world, I will still want to be a film maker in it, I want to be an actor, I want to be a director, I want to be a producer, everything that has to do with filmmaking. So what led me into it was the passion and love I have for it and it is still growing day by day not minding the challenges that come with it.
In your over 20 years in the industry, would you say you find fulfillment in what you are doing?
Yes. Yes. The money might not be there and all that one might think should come with it might not be there but I am fulfilled. When people see me and say that job you did, we like it so much, if you can make people happy, if you can teach them something through your movies and pass across a message and they are able to watch and relate and say we love that movie, to me that is what fulfillment is. Some billonaires today don’t even have peace or rest of mind and there are people who have little in their account and feel like they own the world. It’s because they are happy doing what they are doing, they are fulfilled doing what they are doing, so I will conclusively say that I am happy, I am fulfilled, as much as I still have many more year to put into this business because I am not dying yet. I tell people I am going to die at the age of 130 and it’s going to be that I will call my children and my children’s children and people that have grown under me in this profession and pray over them and then I will sleep. That’s how I am going to die. (Laughs)
This seems like you seeing the end through the eyes of a filmmaker.
Yes, yes.
So when you started, did you ever imagine that Nollywood would be this big?
Never. No one ever imagined that. We never even knew we were going to shoot anything called Living in Bondage. Or Igbo movie. We were shooting a soap for NTA called Memorial Hospital which, forgive me but I must say it, is shown on AIT today as Clinic Matters. They changed the entire concept but the original concept was from NTA, directed by Chris Obi Rapu who was the director of Living in Bondage. We were shooting at Badagary, at the NTA camp in Badagry and we came around 2 to shoot some scenes and a woman came to us and said some people wanted to shoot an Igbo film bla bla bla bla bla and we were all laughing, Bob Manuel Idokwu, Kanayo Kanayo, and we were like Igbo film? What impact would that make when people are doing things like Checkmate by my sister who just passed on, Amaka Igwe, and you are telling me Igbo film. But the woman was persistent and then finally we followed her to Kennedy Nnebue’s NEK video and then they began another audition. That was how we got into it and they told us they have been rehearsing for the past two or three months but when we came, it took a different shape and we reshapened the story and gave it body and started shooting. To tell you the truth, nobody ever that after that Living in Bondage we were going to do a part two but the demand and love people had for the part one now prompted us to do the part two. There was no script for the part two, we had to sit down and plan it, not like now that people shoot from part 1-4. Then, you shoot your movie and end it, when the demand comes so high, you come and sit down and crack your brain. You pull from your hangers and suspense and build a part two. And my joy today is that Nollywood has come to be because of the success of Living in Bondage. I am happy that I am alive and part of the people God used to make what we are celebrating in Nigeria as Nollywood to stay.
You mentioned the idea of Clinic Matters being an offshoot of an earlier idea you had. Would you say there is a lot of theft of ideas in Nollywood?
No, no, what I am trying to say is this: what they are doing in Clinic Matters is a replica of what we had then in Memorial Hospital when this woman approached us. Secondly, I don’t think there is any theft of ideas, no, no. Definitely someone can copy your idea and improve on your loopholes or errors and come out better or worse than yours. Originality exist only once. We have only one Nokia phone, any phone now that calls itself Nokia and is not Nokia is a fake. We have one single Nigeria, there isn’t any other anywhere else. I am Sydney Dialla, there isn’t any other existing anywhere. So anyone else answering Sydney Dialla is a fake. We had only one Michael Jackson that has existed and passed on, anyone coming to answer that name is coming to copy him. So talking of theft of ideas, it’s not there, but people copy.
In relation to this, ealier Nollywood films were said to be replicas of American films…
Never. Never.
You know, there are movies that had Hollywood titles and when you watch them you see the storyline is also copied from the Hollywood film.
Is this then or now? If you say then, when we started, I would say categorically no. but if you say now, I will say yes. Because people had met me and asked, sir, why your people dey copy American films? And they will mention one Nollywood film and the American film and I will go and watch and I will tell you the truth, my brother, it’s almost the same thing, just a change in title or one or two things. To me, that is not filmmaking. Sit down, bring people together sometimes for two weeks, but these days, we don’t have conferencing, brain storming. Today a 10 year old can tell you I know what is going to happen in the end of this film and he will tell you how the story will go and it will go exactly that way, but then when we used to do script conferencing, you can never tell where the film is going, you will be on the edge of your seats watching, because you would want to know how it would end. That was when you watch a movie, and you will come back tomorrow and slot it in again. Today, people will be watching a movie and wanting it to end so they will never watch it again. If you talk of people copying movies from Hollywood, it is now because some directors don’t want to go to work. But some who want to work, they will sit down and make a movie that will be full of suspense. It is just laziness that brings about that.
There have been insinuations that producers are so powerful that they ultimately decide who features in films. How true is that?
Producers, yes, that is true. They want to be very influential. They want to make it known that na me get this film, na me go choose who I wan use. Most of these people are those who produce and also market, they have their people and if you don’t fall into this category, even if you are the best actor they don’t want you. They believe they have faces that sell movies. But I believe that a green horn that you can bring to give you the best might be better. Who knew Lupita before she starred in Twelve Years a Slave? From nowhere. You can pick any one from anywhere, dust him, polish him and put in him what you want him or her to do and her or she will give you something. Our problem is this, when you don’t have a tight story, you now look for faces to cover your errors. That’s why I cry today that we lost Amaka Igwe. She brought people from nowhere. My colleagues and friend Bob Manuel Idowku and Mildred Iweka were just coming out of school, nobody knew them. Checkmate made them who they are. No one knew RMD but from Checkmate they all came up and when Nollywood took off, they were the faces they were picking because somebody somewhere had picked them. So if people can stop being petty and be ready to work, they can pick someone from anywhere. Yes, it is good to use one or two faces to sell your movies but it is also good to mix it up with others. If you watch foreign movies today, and you want to watch it again, you will not see popular faces like Denzel Washington and co. Some of them are new faces and the movies are box office successes. So it all depends on if the directors are ready to work.
What was the most challenging movie you’ve ever worked on?
Most challenging? Frame Up was shot in 1996 or thereabout where I played double character as two different persons because they both require different carriages. That is one. Two was when I played a role in a soap by the Nigerian Customs directed by Emma Eyaba where I played one of the DCGs because it was quite challenging; their saluting, their terms and so on but I thank God because the producer took time to instruct us on what it takes to be an officer, not just an officer but a DCG, after the DCG the next level is the Comptroller General so to be a DCG no be moi-moi. The carriage. I had to shave my beard every two days so as to maintain the discipline and in that uniform, you can’t walk anyhow, even if it is to pretend. Those are the few ones I can remember. I can’t say I have encountered too many challenging roles. Because the man who trained me, Prof. Ola Rotimi trained me well. You can’t find any UniPort graduate who is in this profession wanting, whether as an actor, director, a script writer or cinematographer. I can mention their names for you to check their records. At a point it was as if UniPort students dominated the industry.
Where do you see Nollywood in the next 10 years?
By virtue of the crop of talent coming up now, actors, directors, script writers and so on, we have a very bright future. If some people can afford to do what I am doing now, where I run an academy here in Abuja where by the grace of God I train people in filmmaking, not just having people go on set. I always tell people you mustn’t be an actor to make an impact. Musicians, there are so many that are popular today with hit-making videos. The people who shot those videos are also making money because people would say, oh that guy that shot the Tuface or PSquare video. Now you see ladies handling cameras and the rest. If our people can wake up to the fact that these people can be trained, they need to be tutored, let us leave a legacy that when we are gone, let them have so much to hold on to. And when you add this to what the present MD of the Nigerian Film Coperation is doing, the man is passionate about the industry, coupled with our own vision, in the next five years, Nollywood would have got to the level of Hollywood.