Actor Emeka Ike believes the Nigerian movie industry is dead.
According to the award-winning actor, the Nigerian movie industry has been trampled upon and that there is no movie that is structured on Nollywood.
The ‘Stigma’ actor said “One cannot underestimate that fact. Nollywood is not undergoing a lull as a matter of fact; the industry is dead right now. if you know how much Nollywood has been trampled upon you will know that there is no movie made right now that is structured on the Nollywood you and I use to know. What you see going on right now are perhaps the small boys around the industry in those days making some of the few movies you have around now.”
“They love the art and since they have not been given any chance decide to call their friends together to do some low budget films. They try to feature a couple of known faces. They are just trying to sustain the business that has been crippled, bastardized, trampled upon and hijacked,” he told Morakinyo Olugbiji in an interview.
According to Emeka, it is a failure for an industry which produces hundreds of movies in the past in a month to produce seven currently.
He stressed “It is dead! By every instrument of measurement Nollywood is dead. If you are an industry that produced a hundred movies monthly in the past and now you don’t make seven movies in a month then you have a problem; that’s 7/100. That’s a failure. Forget the fact that a few like Desmond Elliot, Uche Jumbo, Monalisa Chinda, Stephanie Okereke, Emem Isong and a few others are trying to release movies.
“Theirs is just a solo struggle of some artistes who love what they do. You see, those are not even producers; they are the talents. So at the end of the day, the real producers themselves are not making movies any more. Where are the likes of Chico Ejiro, Zeb Ejiro, Fred Amata, Paul Obasele, Jetta Amata, Teco Benson, Fidelis Duker and others? I heard the other day where Chico Ejiro was saying ‘people are now going to the Cinemas and the industry is churning out good films’, but ask him, which movie has he taken to Cinema in 10 years?” he questioned.
