Nollywood wants Change but the ‘Wrong’ one.
I understand we as Nigerians want to grow and widen our horizons; citizens want to fight the age-old beliefs held by our parents’ generation. Because we are so fast-paced and want to reach western standards/civilisations, we have now constructed the excuse that ‘If they can do it, why can’t we?’. You might be wondering ‘what exactly am I talking about’, let me give you an example…I was going through a few articles online and I came across the stories of Tonto Dike in a soft porn Nigerian Film and Charley Boy’s kiss with Denrele…they both pleaded the cliché defence ‘Nigerians are too conservative’ and that we need to grow and become more accepting of certain standards.
I must say, I’m one of those folks that want to see a change in Nigeria all around, be it in the entertainment industry or simply in our own environment, we all want change.
Just like our elders always said ‘A baby picks up the bad things fastest! Could it be what we are doing? Are we looking at other countries trying to copy the ‘bad’ things that they are doing. I use the word ‘bad’ loosely because some people might not agree with me.
Before Nollywood goes ahead to start releasing pornographic movies, how about we try to raise the quality of our movies first. I think we should first of all produce better plots before we take the step into such movies. Let’s face it, our movies are losing creativity and structure and that’s why our actors are now branching out into other areas.
Sadly, most of the talented actors and actresses are gradually disappearing from the Nollywood scene e.g. Kate Henshaw, Omotola Ekeinde, Nkem Owoh (by the way, where is Nkem Owoh? Anyway that’s a discussion for another day).
I am not saying that artists should not be given the freedom to portray the characters they choose, but let us fill the gaps first. Tonto Dike is a beautiful actress and a talented one at that, but it is obvious she acted on bad advice because if she thinks that this movie will make her a bigger star, she is so wrong and should be ashamed of herself. All she has succeeded in doing is type-casting herself into a certain calibre of an actress. She claimed that other Hollywood celebrities do the same thing, but the fact remains that she never did her research, because if she did, she would realise that most of these ‘Hollywood’ actors always regret such choices.
Nollywood, if you want to convey a sexual message in a scene, there are more pleasant ways of doing that, without being verbatim or raunchy. Sex/homosexuality can simply be implied. As for the gay scene, I never even realised we went that far. I have no problem with homosexuals at all, because they are human beings like us who just have different sexual orientations, so I won’t condemn them. But I think the movie was just a bit too extreme for an industry that isn’t even close to its peak.
As for the Charlie Boy and Denrele drama, these are just two crazy menaces that are outright attention-seekers that no one cares about. I am not even sure why Charlie Boy is still relevant today but oh well, it’s whatever! I refuse to speak further on those two.
Anyway, feel free to drop a comment, whether you agree or not, opinions are always welcomed.
