Unprofessional Clowns Have Taken Over Nollywood – Yemi Solade

Nollywood actor, Yemi Solade has come out to say that the Nigerian movie industry is now filled with Yahoo boys and prostitutes.

The movie star just revealed during a recent interview with The Tribune.

According to him, the gatekeepers of Nollywood have allowed unprofessionals and clowns to take over the spots that were meant for those who are really passionate about the craft.

He added that Nollywood currently looks like an uncompleted building that is not guarded and accommodates both the good and bad.

His words, “The Nollywood is not there right now. The Nolllywood you see now is all encompassing. It’s like an uncompleted building that is not guarded and what you meet there would amaze you. It has become an all comers affair, anybody can stroll in and act. All the Yahoo boy are now there, all the prostitutes that you can imagine are there.

“People cannot even differentiate between the core professionals and these class of clowns who have infiltrated the association, but they didn’t just fly in, some people whom you refer to as core professionals brought them in.

“It’s just so porous that anybody can become an actor, the entry point is so porous and annoying. It’s a profession and it must be handled and treated as one. I am not really pleased with the state of the industry. It’s a professional body and we must portray ourselves as one that has mastered the art and craft of the profession.”

What do you think?

Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in The New York Times. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed-upon definition for the term, which has made it a subject to several controversies.

The origin of the term “Nollywood” remains unclear; Jonathan Haynes traced the earliest usage of the word to a 2002 article by Matt Steinglass in the New York Times, where it was used to describe Nigerian cinema.

Charles Igwe noted that Norimitsu Onishi also used the name in a September 2002 article he wrote for the New York Times. The term continues to be used in the media to refer to the Nigerian film industry, with its definition later assumed to be a portmanteau of the words “Nigeria” and “Hollywood”, the American major film hub.

Film-making in Nigeria is divided largely along regional, and marginally ethnic and religious lines. Thus, there are distinct film industries – each seeking to portray the concern of the particular section and ethnicity it represents. However, there is the English-language film industry which is a melting pot for filmmaking and filmmakers from most of the regional industries.