Kunle Afolayan, the Nigerian filmmaker,has revealed why he
has stepped back from producing cinema releases in recent years, citing the
exhaustive promotional demands of the modern market.
Speaking at the Lagos Business of Film summit, the
51-year-old director and producer stated that the relentless cycle of content
creation needed to promote theatrical films is unsustainable for him.
Despite being a pioneer of Nigeria’s cinema resurgence, he
urged the industry to develop less draining marketing strategies.
Afolayan expressed admiration for colleagues who sustain
constant social media engagement, but admitted it wasn’t for him.
“I am one of the people who started all of these cinema
gigs. Even though all this dancing, I started before anybody. I danced in
London. So, it was not just local,” he said.
“This was 2006. We did all the runs. It is draining. I want
to make a film if you guarantee that I do not have to dance to sell that film.
Are there other ways? We need to come up with other strategies. How do we sell
without exhausting ourselves?
“I do not know how Funke and the likes of them are doing it
– creating all of those skits, changing costumes every day. I cannot do it. But
we have stories we have been working on for more than four years, and we are
willing to do.”
Afolayan emphasised that a return to cinema is possible
through meaningful collaboration. He pointed to the recent buzz generated by a
single screengrab from his upcoming series ‘Anikulapo’ as proof of audience
appetite for quality.
“They want to release a film in December, and they announced
it in January. But my point is, I will make an amazing film. Look at
‘Anikulapo’. We released just a screengrab of the series like two weeks ago,
and it was as if people had been starved of good content,” he added.
“The whole world went boom because they have not seen
anything from us in a while. If there is a collaboration this year, we can make
a great film, and then we will go to the cinema. But we will not dance.”
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