Aremu Afolayan, one of the children of late theatre icon, Ade Love, has said that he sold four of his cars to raise funds for the shoot of The Score, his latest movie.
Aremu claimed that he sold his four cars, worth N17 million, at N8million.
The money was used to fund the shooting of the movie. He admitted that the movie was a big loss, but he remains undaunted because his aim was to produce a quality movie that Nigerians can be proud of.
He therefore urged Nigerians and the government to change their attitude towards filmmakers. Afolayan argued that while the government has failed to render necessary assistance to the film industry, Nigerians too are not helping matters.
“The government should try and help us. We need them. The government should get us film villages. In a film village, we would have access to guns; we need guns and other props to shoot our movies. We go to peoples’ houses to inconvenience them. Is it supposed to be so? No. To the audience, they should try and encourage us and not tell us when we make crap. They are the consumers, we have no right to talk when they are talking. But they don’t need to criticise my movie to make me cry. They need to constructively criticise me. They should think about where and how I get the fund to shoot my movie. I didn’t steal or do shady business because I want to make a movie,” Afolayan lamented.
He swiftly added that most viewers who brand Nigerian movies ‘crap’ do so ignorantly. “You can criticise, but don’t generally tell us that everything we do is crap when you don’t know the meaning of a crap movie. When you don’t have the money to make movies, you will make crap. Money is film; without it, you can’t do anything. They don’t know yet that filming can sell far better than the oil we depend on in Nigeria,” he said.
On The Score, Afolayan said it was aimed at raising the bar in the industry. “I see other Nollywood action movies and they are not up to standard. So, I felt I had to do something very catchy and it brought about The Score. I had to change the face of Nollywood with the film,” he explained.
—Bayo Adetu
