Why N50 Million Is insufficient for quality film production in nigeria – Kunle Remi

Nigerian actor Kunle Remi is talking about the financial part of Nollywood in an interview with Arise TV, and it’s a very interesting conversation. Here are the highlights.

During the interview, Kunle was asked “You see actors like Timini Egbuson talking about how bankable it is to be a Nollywood actor. Is this bankable thing a myth or is it a reality?” to which he said:

KUNLE REMI: It’s not a myth. It’s a reality. Gone are the times when you don’t make money as an actor. Yes, we are not Hollywood and we don’t have budgets of a hundred million dollars. I mean, if you have a budget of a hundred million dollars, it means everybody is well paid. However, the pay is good, but it depends on who you are. I, as an actor, I am well paid. I am well paid.

“There was a time when Nollywood seemed to be the laughing stock of the movie community globally because they used to say you could actually wax a movie from start to finish in one week.”

KUNLE REMI: It still happens, on Youtube. That’s what differentiates you from going to the big screen, like the cinemas, and also doing something for a streaming platform like Youtube. Youtube, they don’t think they need to do all of that long-term production because it’s quick consumption. But for cinema, for film, for the big screen, it takes a while. It can take a year, or two.

“Okay let’s talk costs. Is it easier or hard to do movies now? Because the standard is so high. How expensive are our movies that we churn out this time around as against probably ten years ago?”

KUNLE REMI: It’s pretty much expensive. As at 2019, 2020, you could make a movie with N50 million, a very good film. Now as I speak to you, I’m drawing up the budget for a film, and I’m looking at N250 million. And that’s for a smaller scale. So imagine, the bigger you go. If you’re doing an epic for example, you’re looking at a billion. You’re looking at N800 million. It keeps going up and up like that. Minus marketing.

It’s bigger, it’s more risk. It’s more. Everything is now more expensive as you know. So even cameras you rented before is now double the price. Accommodation is double the price. Feeding is double the price. So at the end of the day, you can’t say you want to make a film of N50 million. You can, but what kind of standard are you going for? What kind of production value? So the more you think about these things, the more you want something solid for yourself.

I don’t know if you saw the trailer for Kemi Adetiba’s husband, Oscar’s film. You see that film! You see Anikulapo, You see Jagun Jagun. There’s so much that goes into these productions, and that’s a big budget. My colleague, Lateef Adedimeji, just made his own film recently. Bruh! I know what goes into these things, and it’s further away from what we’ve always invested or imagined it could be. Now, it’s more. Now, it’s way more.

That’s All.