There is no doubt that one of the highly sought-after filmmakers in Nigeria is Kunle Afolayan, whose movies have been used to define what many refer to as the new Nollywood.
The actor cum director, who spoke to the BBC news in Lagos, touched on a sensitive subject that most Nigerian filmmakers hate to hear.
According to him, “20 years of Nollywood is 20 years of low quality movies.”
Nigeria’s film industry, known as Nollywood, started just over 20 years ago and is now the third largest in the world.
As a background to the interview, the British channel had used the description of the popularised Nigerian home video format, stating that “many of its (Nigeria) low-budget films follow well-tried formulas with huge doses of love, betrayal and witchcraft.
“However, some Nigerian filmmakers are working outside the Nollywood genre, hoping to succeed internationally. Kunle Afolayan is one of them. He studied film in New York and October 1 is his first big-budget movie.”
In the media chat, which is currently trending on YouTube, Afolayan stated that his film, October 1, is in post-production stage, while he is still struggling to get more funds to complete it.
The filmmaker said that the $2 million, which is said to be the budget for the historical flick, is just for production and that marketing the movie would require another 20 percent of the total budget.
According to him, his major drive, in spite of the odds, is passion.
“Some of us live, sleep and dream movies,” he said to the BBC on January 2, 2014.
Afolayan is the son of legendary filmmaker, the late Ade Afolayan, aka Ade Love, who passed on 17 years ago.
Young Afolayan, a multiple-award winning filmmaker, dumped his banking job to pick up his father’s profession.
“I was privileged to visit a few movie sets while growing up. Professionally, I started in 1998. In 2004, I resigned from the bank and went to the New York Film Academy. 20 years of Nollywood is 20 years of low quality films,” he said as footages of his films and his late father’s were streamed in the interview.
“Films were shot from ‘60s and ‘70s in this country and I happened to witness the making of these films. My father happened to be one of those who made these films and the films travelled throughout the world. The Nigerian film industry started as far back as the 60s and that is what I will celebrate. I don’t want to limit myself to the glory I get around the continent or Nigeria. I want to be able to compete outside the continent. I want my films to travel to Cannes (Cannes International Film Festival) and bigger film festivals around the world. I want my works to compete with the likes of Quentin Tarantino, Stephen Spielberg and the rest of them. I want to be seen as Kunle Afolayan, the filmmaker, and not as someone who operates only within his territory,” he said.
Afoloyan has produced a number of critically acclaimed films, including The Figurine: Araromire, Phone Swap and Irapada.
He also disclosed that October 1 would be released this year.