The national president of Actors Guild of Nigeria (AGN) Emeka Rollas has said that Nigerian actors are not the the mainstream of the international film industry.
Mr Rollas stated this in a recent interview with QEDNG, adding that only Nigerians who are born or live abroad have been opportune to be part of the international film industry.
He said: “How can they be? They cannot. How many films are shot in Hollywood that you will say you have Nollywood actors involved, apart from maybe indigenous Nigerians who have lived abroad or were born abroad? There are likes of a lot of big stars, I don’t want to call names, who have had to relocate to America at some point, it takes you a lot to get into the mainstream and even with our affiliation with the International Federation of Actors, FIA and of course we have a very good relationship with the Screen Actors Guild of America, its still not enough to enter the mainstream.
“So with the knowledge of what we have, we are pushing it by creating some of these programmes, these programmes like the AGN International Festival, also prepare oneself for us to interact, network within that space and see what we can do. I must tell you that there are a lot of foreign people who want to film in Nigeria and they are looking for a contact to do all of that. We want to expose our actors so that while they are coming to Nigeria, they will not only say they are going to Nigeria to experience Nigeria, but they will also mention specific actors or actresses that they want to film with.
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Speaking further, Emeka added: “To be very frank, African films are doing very well among Africans the among Africans in the diaspora but that is not enough.
“Let me tell you why film is a language to be enjoyed by everybody, Indian films, you cannot tell me that Indian films are only enjoyed by Indians in Nigeria, no. Indian films are enjoyed by both Indians and us in Nigeria, That is to tell you the success of the industry. I am not saying that these successes will happen within a twinkle of an eye but let us set the pace for the success.”
