Why I Reconciled With Basketmouth -AY Opens Up

Nollywood actor and producer is opening up in a new interview with HipTV about a myriad of things including why he mended his relationship with long-time rival Basketmouth, and also opening up about industry gist. Here’s what AY had to say.

Speaking about mending his relationship with fellow comedian Basketmouth, AY said:

AY: I think what what’s important is the fact that we came to realize that it was really you know not necessary to be in a position where the younger ones in the industry who are looking up to us will see that what we’re doing is not even projecting them or leading them in the right direction. So having that realization and you know, putting all of that that has happened behind, it’s just what is worth celebrating. It’s just what is worth talking about because that’s the only way we can grow the industry and I’m very very excited about it. I mean my premiere is coming up, many ideas are flowing left right and center. You see Basket, put a call through, “I just love what I saw now, I think we can also do this. I think you can infuse this into your your premiere,” and then me on the other side I am, you know, carrying his emblem, supporting his film, doing all the promotions as well. Doing cinema visits. And for us, that’s the way forward. If we can maintain that attitude, the industry is going to become a better place not just for Basket and myself, but for all of us having that collect collective understanding you know to move the industry forward.

Speaking about the gist that producers take money and only use 10% for the movie while squandering the rest, AY said:

AY: The story is authentic. I would say yes to some extent, but maybe not in the capacity of just spending 10% per say for the entire film, but a lot of people are just fond of, even beyond streamers, they are fond of even borrowing money from friends, family, people around them them to invest and at the end of the day, they don’t even you know recoup the money or pay back whatever that they borrow from wherever that they borrow from. So it’s been a norm since the days of Bank of Industry where some filmmakers would go there and collect money to do a project and they won’t go back there to pay the money for the industry to have enough money for other people to come and borrow and make other films. So yes, all of that has been in existence. But it is also affecting us as an industry and the best way out of that is for us to put ourselves in positions to do better by you know doing the right thing.

Speaking about the story of Netflix leaving Nigeria, AY said:

AY: The story of Netflix living Nigeria as a result of you know the 10% that producers spend on the film, Netflix they’ve come here and they’ve been able to get quality for the money that they invest in our industry and this is me saluting most of the recent producers. I want to think it’s maybe producers in the past, maybe that’s where the 10% gist is coming from because before Netflix will give you money, there’s what we call due process. Netflix does not even give you money all at once to go and do a project, so as the project progresses, even when the project is ready there’s a structure for that payment. It’s broken down into four segments as a case may be. By so doing, they are also monitoring. They’re seeing the content, they’re seeing what you’re bringing in. It’s going to be value for value and then they know how to make payments, so that’s what’s going on.

Source: Jide Okonjo

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