Veteran actor, Emeka Ossai, has revealed why most actors in the Nollywood industry are off the screen.
The Film Director, Mr Emeka Ossai, said the new Nollywood actors lack originality, making the importance of the industry irrelevant and boring.
Ossai stated this when speaking with the members of the Creative Industry Group (CIG) who visited the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), Lagos office.
He said Nollywood was initially made to colonize Africa and for people in the diaspora to know more about the country and culture.
But now, it’s more like actors are trying to imitate international movie industries.
According to him, they were trained formally and informally to be part of Nollywood but that is not the case of the present Nollywood.
He said, “The veterans started the path called: Nollywood some years back and were able to colonize Africa and the diaspora to love our contents and to love Nigeria.
“To sustain Nollywood, the kind of story we tell should be original and indigenous.
“Some people have infiltrated the industry with the colonial mentality of doing business; they want to adulterate our culture by bringing in some content outside our cultural identity.
“People acting and mimicking the whites when they are blacks by speaking through their nostrils and changing the trajectory from contemporary Africa stories should rethink.”
“Some producers of movies have created “New Nollywood” by bringing in untrained artists. In our own time, we were trained either formally or informally.
“We were trained in the Nollywood through apprenticeship or actual practice overtime before becoming a frontrunner in the business.
“Some artists can play the role of a ‘Waka Pass’ for 10 years before getting a lead role. A fresher cannot muscle an old hand in a role within a short time.”
