11th June, 2023
By Taiye Olayemi
The Theatre Arts and Motion Pictures Practitioners’ Association of Nigeria (TAMPAN) has urged the Federal Government to support the Nigerian creative industry by establishing film villages.
This, TAMPAN said, will ensure ease of shooting movies by filmmakers.
Bolaji Amusan, National President of TAMPAN, made the call in an interview on Sunday in Lagos.
Amusan said to upscale the entertainment industry in Nigeria, film villages were needed where actors could use as their permanent movie locations.
He said this would not only protect actors from harassments by hoodlums and street urchins but also position actors to work better.
“We call on President Bola Tinubu to support us as actors, we want film villages to be built across states to make our work as actors easier.
“The film villages will be used as our movie locations where we can design and redesign to sooth our productions. We have suffered series of harassments from street urchins who just come to siphon money from us while shooting our films.
“When we have designated film villages known by all, the activities of these individuals will be checked outrightly and we will be able to produce more.
“This is what is obtainable in other climes, ours should not be an exception,” he said.
In addition, Amusan urged the new administration to make soft loans with low interest rates available, as well as grants for performers, in order to boost the quality of Nigerian films.
He also appealed for laws to tackle the age-old scourge of piracy.
According to him, it was past time for Nigeria to follow the lead of other emerging countries in putting in place the necessary infrastructure for the entertainment industry to prosper.
He stated that the ongoing issue of power outages must be addressed in order for film productions to run smoothly.
”It is unfortunate that the immediate past government did not support the creative industry at all, except the governor of Lagos state, Gov. Babajide Sanwolu, who helped in building the industry in so many ways.
“We want access to airports, seaports and other federal government properties or establishments so as to make it easier for us to ply our trade.
“We also need support in the area of actors’ training, this will help in improving the quality of movies we churn out,” he said.
NAN