Actress Funke Akindele has hit back at colleague, Kunle Afolayan, in reprisal for the latter’s veiled attack on her.
Afolayan had said there was hype around blockbuster cinema figures in a subtle dig at Akindele whose recent work, ‘Behind The Scenes’ reportedly grossed over N2 billion at the box office, making it the first Nollywood production in Africa to cross this threshold in ticket sales.
“I don’t want two billion streams at the cinemas and end up receiving ten million naira. People celebrate numbers, but after deductions, fees, and the way distribution is structured, the producer may hardly have access to that money.
“A film can be said to have crossed a massive benchmark, but after everything is settled, the producer might barely see ten million naira,” the award-winning director stated while speaking at the watch party of his Netflix series, Aníkúlápó: The Ghouls Awaken.
He also ruled himself out of the recent practice whereby artists dance to promote their movies, which is typical of Akindele in his remark at the Lagos Business of Film Summit.
“For cinema, I’m one of the people who started the cinema gig, and dancing before anybody. I danced in London too, not just locally.
“In 2006, I did all the runs, and it was exhausting. I want to make a film if you can guarantee I don’t have to dance to sell that film. We need to come up with other strategies. How do we sell without exhausting ourselves?
“I don’t know how the likes of Funke Akindele and others are doing it — creating skits every day, changing costumes all the time. I can’t do it,” he voiced.
In an apparent hit-back that’s not frontally, Jenifa threw shades at Afolayan accusing him of jealousy in an Instagram posts where she wrote, “If you can’t beat them or join them, create your own path rather than watering down the efforts of people.
“Don’t allow jealousy to burn you. The sky is big for everyone to fly.
“I am not the one hindering your progress.
“You can go ahead and create your marketing strategy to promote your business or hire a company to handle it. Opportunities are endless and everybody has their path to follow.”
