Nollywood: Sex Glamour And Fake Life   

Published on October 31, 2011 by TheNEWS   ·   No Comments

Beneath the copious glamour of the Nigerian film industry are the unsavoury elements of lies, cheap sex, poverty and simulated lush lifestyles

 

Genevieve Nnaji is hot number around Africa and in the immigrant enclaves of Europe and the Americas, where Nigerian home videos are watched with near-religious devotion. The Nigerian screen idol has what many women would kill to have: an eminently telegenic face, a body that provokes envy–and desire in men–as well as copious amounts of fame and cash.

On a visit to Sierra Leone a few years ago, when she met the country’s president, Nnaji provoked massive hysteria. It was as though Michael Jackson was visiting the West African country. Of the visit, Nnaji said: “I know I made a statement in Sierra Leone…It’s the same thing in Nigeria, trust me. The same thing. For crying out loud, you know how many states we have in Nigeria alone. And the kind of attention I get in Lagos where I live. My friends are like ‘don’t they get tired of you?’”

The answer: they don’t. She has a number of endorsement deals, starred in commercials and has been the face of many awareness campaigns, both locally and internationally.

In May 2009, the management of Harpo Studios, the producers of Oprah Winfery Show, asked some young Nigerians to name Nigeria’s most celebrated personalities. By September of that year, Nnaji was invited to feature in the show. Other stars from around the world including Aishwarya Rai and Abhishek Bachchan (India’s Bollywood) and Lu Yu (China) were also featured on the show. Nnaji became the first Nigerian to receive such honour, when she featured on Meet the Most Famous People in the World. A montage of photographs and a video clip from the movie Bursting Out, featuring Nnaji, was shown and her career highlights were mentioned. She was referred to as the Julia Roberts of Africa.

Nollywood, as the movie industry is called, has other big stars like the curvaceous Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde and the buxom Mercy Johnson, but they still trail Nnaji. It is because of Nnaji’s successes and her colleagues in the movie industry–and music industry–that young Nigerians, these days, dream more of becoming entertainment icons than academics or writers.

Daily, aspiring entrants into the movie industry can be found at Winnis Hotel in Surulere, Lagos, the National Theatre Annex and other haunts favoured by Nollywood stars. Winnis is where Nollywood luminaries hang out when off-work. It is also where contacts could be easily made and deals cut. From its humble beginnings in the early 90s, the industry has grown exponentially, becoming the third largest in the world after America’s Hollywood and India’s Bollywood. But it does not yet have the prosperity or organisation of its foreign counterparts. Estimates of its earning power have veered between $200 to $250 million yearly. Even in its imperfect state, it is a huge employer of labour. Typical Nollywood flicks are shot over a period of two weeks, usually on lean budgets of between N2 and N15million.

The biggest stars, classed as “Special A-list actors”, said a source, earn between N800,000 and N1.5 million per script–the equivalent of what an entry level American actor earns in four weeks. Those in the category, said the source, include Nnaji, Jalade-Ekeinde, Johnson, Ramsey Noah, Emeka Ike, Rita Dominic, Uche Jombo, Nkem Owoh, Patience Ozokwor and Jim Iyke.

Next to them are “normal A-list” actors, who earn between N500,000 and N600,000. Below this class is the group tagged “normal actors”, who could earn between N250,000 and N500,000 per script.

These figures are for stars in the Igbo/English movie sector.

Yet, thousands of aspiring actors, writers and directors flock to Lagos, Enugu, Asaba and other movie hotspots yearly to pursue careers in the industry.

For most, especially in the Yoruba movie sector, the wages are lower. Their names are considerably bigger than their bank statements.

There are Yoruba movie actors with more than 50 lead roles who remain anything but wealthy. Yemi Solade, a big name in the sector, once told this magazine that many of his colleagues may die in poverty. “The industry is not organised and there are few professionals. Everybody wants to produce, direct, and at the same time, act. As a result of this, they do what I call man-know-man, a system whereby when I work for you, you won’t pay me and vice versa. It is absolute rubbish and the industry and individuals will never grow with that. Also, I detest the idea that everybody must produce films. It is only in the Yoruba sector that you will see a generator man claiming to be a producer because he managed to get some coins from a marketer in Idumota,” he said.

According to Solade, an actor, who co-starred with Yinka Quadri in the award-winning film 150 Million, got only N15,000 for his role in the two-part flick.

As recently as 2007, said Solade, most Yoruba movies were shot with budgets below N300,000. The implication is that the actors have no way of earning big sums. “How will an actor earn N400,000? It’s not possible and you know it. Nigerians also know that anybody earning N300,000 per script cannot be trekking. I have never earned that from a producer; it is only the likes of Tade Ogidan that will pay that. And that happens once in a while… Anybody that pays you N50,000 in Yoruba movie industry feels he has paid you N50 million. It’s not a lie,” he declared. This, he explained, is why the generality of producers work every week.

Esther Idowu Philips, better known as Iya Rainbow, is one the most prominent faces in the Yoruba movie segment. She has over a hundred lead roles under her belt. But she can hardly be classed as rich. Alongside her acting career, she runs a Cherubim and Seraphim ministry inside her sitting room at Alhaja Wosilat Street, Ojodu-Abiodun, a suburb of Ogun State.

And it was not until the late Alade Aromire gave her a Toyota Sienna car that she owned a car. The car has since become rickety, but still takes the actress around.

Her first son, Femi, who produced films like Odunmbaku and Alapaatira, has abandoned his production career and relocated to the United Kingdom. Before his departure, he told this magazine that he was fleeing the country because the outlook for movie makers has been made bleak by the activities of marketers and pirates.

Yemi Amodu, who seemed a successful actor on account of the roles he was getting, is another Nollywood star who has fled the country. The relocation of Amodu, a US Visa Lottery winner, did not surprise his fans, who got used to seeing him move around Lagos on the back of commercial motorcyles, popularly known as Okada.

Ricardo Agbor, a popular young actor who has starred in dozens of movies and soaps, was once quoted by Esquire, an American magazine, as saying he has attained a measure of success that most will never know, but is still “hustling, struggling to pay the bills and find steady work”.

Hustling takes various forms. They include trading, chasing government contracts, acting as comperes at corporate and social events, endorsing office-seeking politicians and for the females, functioning as consorts to the rich and downright crooked men in the society.

On 3 September at the Ojez Restaurant in Lagos, Governor Godswill Akpabio of Akwa Ibom State donated sums of money to professionals in the entertainment sector who had come out to participate in the novelty football match played as part of the activities for the burial of singer Christy Essien-Igbokwe. Nollywood stars, who defeated their colleagues from the music sector in the football match, got a reward of N1.5 million from the governor.

The sharing of the largesse sparked a brawl. Those present had to pinch themselves to be sure that the yelling and brawling were being carried out by film stars that the media regularly credit with fabulous lifestyles. “You need to see how some of these so-called movie stars lobby and prostrate to get ridiculous amounts of money. The manner at which most of them, particularly those regarded as role models stooped so low, quarrelling over money gifts from politicians, calls for serious concern,” said Yomi Fabiyi, a producer and director.

Solade attributed the practice of endorsing politicians by actors to poverty.

“Poverty is the issue here. We do not have stars here in Nigeria, otherwise they would not be dancing behind the politicians. I’m more relevant than the politicians and better known. You will not see me behind any of them for any amount of money. Though, I’m not a rich man, I still have my integrity,” he ranted in a recent interview.

Does that explain why some film stars have SUV-infested garages? Partly, said a source, who accused female colleagues of hawking their bodies to augment their earnings from acting. And with a raft of beautiful stars and aspiring stars, the supply stream of bodies is a rich one.

The source describes it as quasi-prostitution–both here and abroad. According to him, four prominent Nollywood actresses were invited for the opening of a nightclub in Central London by a Nigerian socialite, who paid them £1000 each as appearance fees and took care of their travel expenses.

While in the United Kingdom, two of the actresses, both married, were introduced to London socialites by a mutual friend. On the day of the event and at the time it held, they stayed with the men instead of attending the opening of the club.

When the club owner got to know that they preferred trysts to his event, he threatened to report the actresses to their husbands. The source said the actresses begged the club owner and promised to refund the appearance fees.

Back home, suspicions abound that many actresses see being consorts as their main occupation. Top Yoruba movie star, Temitayo Odueke, better known as Sindodo, had a widely publicised affair with MC Oluomo, a well known Lagos toughie and and bigshot of the Lagos State chapter of the National Union of Road Transport Workers. Oluomo has also been romantically linked with others in the movie industry. In an interview, he admitted dating Sindodo, but denied dating others. He described them as friends, whom he helped when they wanted to produce their movies.

About dating roughnecks, a star actress said: “It is not as if our girls don’t wish to date bankers or other people in the corporate world, but the truth is that it is these union boys that spend lavishly, perhaps because they make so much money daily. I will blame my colleagues for this because most of them are unnecessarily desperate to live large, most times beyond their means.”

Another actress, though not one with anything resembling an impressive resume, is thought to be one of the richest in the industry. A few months ago, the recently divorced actress acquired a brand new Range Rover and opened a fancy store in Abuja. Prior to now, she ran a small restaurant with her husband.

But not every flesh-hawking attempt is successful. Two years ago, a very popular Yoruba actress got conned by a man, who claimed to have arrived from Holland. For months, they were in touch through the telephone. The man claimed he was relocating to Nigeria to invest heavily in movie production. The actress thought she had found help, but what she got was hindrance.

On arrival, he informed the actress that he was in a hotel in the Ogba area of Lagos. The actress moved in with him. And for two weeks, they stayed together, with the actress thinking that a big break was on the cards. The man kept up the fiction with the line that he was waiting for the arrival of his filmmaking equipment, which he was shipping from Holland. Within the time, he had run up bills at the hotel, but he was allowed to stay because the hotel management recognised the actress. But the man absconded, leaving the actress with the task of paying the bills.

Others have taken to crime. Taiwo Hassanat, a.k.a Yetunde Wunmi, has been convicted of drug peddling, after being arrested with cocaine at the Murtala Muhammed International Airport in Lagos by the National Drug Law Enforcement Agency, NDLEA. Shortly after, Uche Odoputa, an actor in the Igbo/English sector, also took the rap for the same offence.

Those who are yet to be stars, naturally, suffer considerably more. With bit-parts like gatemen, domestic servants or walk-on parts (waka pass), they earn between N7,500, N10,000 per job. They are also less likely to be sought after for romance by the rich and the influential. “Tell me how someone earning such meagre amounts of money can legitimately build a house, buy a good car or trendy clothes. Some of them even deceive themselves that the money is transport allowance. It is a shame. But I think the situation is gradually improving now, thanks to some companies and individuals investing in the industry,” Fabiyi told TheNEWS.

Even then, to get those insignificant roles costs a lot in self-pride. Producers and directors have been suspected of demanding sex in exchange for roles. While many actors, actresses, directors and producers deny the existence of the practice in Nollywood, not many are convinced.

Chinemerem Ezeoka, a Kano-based aspiring actress, told this magazine that she once experienced demand for sex from a director. Chinmerem resigned her job as a receptionist in 2007, hoping to make it big in acting. “But a few months into the adventure, I became very disillusioned, as I began to witness the fraud, injustice and rot in the industry,” she told TheNEWS. According to her, a director called her after a rehearsal and told her to see him at a hotel the next day. The excuse was that she had done well in the rehearsal and he wanted to tell her how to further improve. She was glad and kept the appointment, only to be ushered into a room, where the director, in plain language, demanded sex. That marked the end of her adventure.

Multiple award-winning producer/director, Teco Benson, told this magazine that the industry has become a dumpsite for drop-outs and those that have failed in other endeavours, who then seek other routes to stardom. “Most of them are not even talented in acting at all. Hence they cut corners by trying to seduce directors/producers. They see Nollywood as a hide-out,” he told TheNEWS. Benson also explained that the average actor in the English sector earns more than his counterpart in the Yoruba segment.

National Public Relations Officer of the Actors’ Guild of Nigeria, AGN, Alhaji Abubakar Yakub, explained that actors in the English sector earn more because they are better organised and more business-oriented. The Yoruba sector is dominated by caucuses that promote the notion that personal relationships trump business ones.

In the Yoruba sector for instance, once you are a member of the Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners, ANTP, you can be a scriptwriter, actor, director and producer.

But in the English sector, you must be a registered member of the Directors’ Guild of Nigeria, DGN, to direct a movie. There are other guilds like the Association of Movie Producers, AMP, and those for scriptwriters, camera men and other film professionals.

“We are better organised here. That is why the likes of Genevieve, Ramsey Nouah, Segun Arinze and Patience Ozokwor don’t double as movie producers. They are comfortable as actors,” explained Abubakar.

In Kano, capital of the Hausa movie sector, film stars fare no better.

A female boutique owner in Kano told this medium that she has caused the arrest of many actresses who bought wares from her and were unable to pay months after purchase. “They live a borrowed life,” she said.

Last year, an actress, who allegedly stole dollars from the briefcase of a man, was sexually assaulted at a nightclub in No Man’s Land area of the city. She was allegedly drugged before the men took turns on her and pushed her out. The actress was later said to have required psychiatric treatment.

The Hausa movie sector is also bespattered by stories of homosexuality, lesbianism and drug abuse.

Recently, a Kano-based actress, Rabi Cecelia, was sentenced to death by the Supreme Court for killing her boyfriend, Auwalu, while on a picnic at Tiga Dam. Rabi hauled Auwalu into the water after poisoning him and robbing him of N10,000 and other belongings on 25 December, 2002.

In 2007, another actress, Maryam Usman, popularly known as Hiyana, was video-recorded while having sex with a man. The video was widely circulated.

What some of the Nollywood actresses do is outright prostitution. Some of them go to great lengths to get close to the aides of governors, senators and the president simply because these top politicians have deep pockets. They get so desperate that they sometimes warm the beds of the aides so they can arrange a meeting with their principals.

Early this year, two famous actresses quarrelled after one accused the other of snatching a South South governor she introduced her to. Indeed, because of their fame, Nigerian big men enjoy ‘conquering’ Nollywood actresses. For most of these actresses, it is the easy bucks from these big men that ensure they ride sport utility vehicles and live in the most expensive parts of Lagos and Abuja, and not what they earn in movies.

An Abuja-based publisher spoke of his shock at seeing a former aide of ex-president Olusegun Obasanjo “camp” a famous Nollywood actress in his Abuja home for two weeks. “During this period, she was the one who ushered in his visitors. And she was often scantily dressed. It was really shocking because this woman is undoubtedly one of the most popular in Nollywood, yet she didn’t give a damn. It was absolutely shocking. She had no shame,’’ he narrated.

Another source told TheNEWS how a married actress pleaded with her to facilitate a meeting between her (the actress) and Chelsea football club star, Mikel Obi. “Mikel Obi is good-looking; I really want to meet him,” she quoted her as saying.

However, sometimes, the Nigerian money man fails to lure the Nigerian actress to bed, despite offering a bag full of dollars and a trip abroad.

In an interview with Encomium magazine, Matthew, husband of screen goddess, Omotola Jolade-Ekeinde, spoke of how a governor had been pestering his wife for sex. “He told my wife to lie to me that she was going to shoot a movie abroad. But my wife revealed all his plans to me,” he said.

“Sex is cheap in Nollywood because many of the big movie actresses sleep with producers before they got their big breaks. I introduced one of the biggest actresses in Nollywood today to a producer who gave her the big break. But that same day the producer slept with her on his office table. So sex is nothing to them,” a senior journalist told this medium last week.

A major Nollywood player in Kano told this magazine that many of the big Nollywood stars in Kano depend on commercial motorcylists to move around. “Here, we have very big names in the Hausa film industry that are riding bikes,” he said.

The prodigious production level is made possible by cheap modern digital production. However, rampant digital piracy has left producers with no opportunity to build an industry around protected copyrights.

Nigerian films are popular around the world. BSkyB, a British satellite broadcaster, and Odeon, a cinema chain, both show Nollywood classics. Many believe the popularity is due to the activities of copyright thieves who, as soon as films are released, copy and distribute them all around the continent and beyond. This makes the products popular, but slashes the dividends on investments in movies.

There have been moves by governments to curtail the spread of Nollywood films. Ghana has introduced protectionist measures, including production fees and started demanding $1,000 from visiting actors and $5,000 from producers and directors. The Democratic Republic of Congo has tried to ban Nigerian films altogether.

But Nollywood films remains popular, despite their trippy plots and themes, choppy editing, limited genres and funding problems. There may be a lot of unsavoury things in Nollywood, but it is about the country’s pre-eminent, something like the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France or the Statue of Liberty in New York.

It is less than two and half decades old, but has grown, in quantity, beyond older counterparts. Experts reckon that about 2,400 films are made yearly, with hundreds in a month.

But the future looks really bright, and the hardworking Nollywood producers and actors are certain to make fatter gains in the years to come.

For example, Kunle Afolayan’s on-coming film, Phone Swap, is reportedly being supported by GSM giant, Globacom and the actor/producer has a budget close to $2m for the movie. “We are breaking barriers. Yes, there are problems, but we have capacity”, a former president of the actors body told TheNEWS last Friday.

But with the lies and poor wages that force stars to simulate fabulous lives, Nollywood is like a queen with velvet robes and tattered undergaments.

 

– Additional reports by Kemi Akinyemi, Funsho Arogundade and Madu Mmeribeh (Kano)