Funke Akindele, a Nigerian filmmaker, has revealed her secrets to producing blockbuster films such as A Tribe Called Judah.
Akindele reavealed this in an interview with Channels TV.
She said that the NTA family drama series ‘I Need To Know’, which she starred in as a teenager, was a great launching pad for her groundbreaking career. That career has now led her to over a billion naira in ticket sales at the local box office with ‘A Tribe Called Judah’.
She said,
“I started with I Need to Know, and while on the set, I was understudying every department. I’m self-taught. I was there as an actress, and I was checking out everything, and I was always asking the director then. He is late now. I will ask Baba, (we called him Baba) ‘What is this?’ ‘Oh this camera is for this,’ ‘This light is called this,’ and then from there, I moved on to the Yoruba genre, and I started learning how to produce. Yoruba movie makers are very good producers.”
A Tribe Called Judah tells the story of five brothers:
Jide Kene Achufusi as Emeka Judah, Timini Egbuson as Pere Judah, Uzee Usman as Adamu Judah, Tobi Makinde as Shina Judah, and Olumide Oworu as Ejiro Judah. The brothers must unite to rob a company to save their mother Jedidah Judah (Funke Akindele).
The feature-length film officially hit the one-billion-naira gross income on Thursday. It has become the first ever Nollywood title to break that record. It is also the highest-grossing Nigerian film currently.
Akindele spoke about the core Nigerian heritage that the production highlights. She emphasized that the desired glitz and glamour seen in the Western culture can also be achieved by leaning into stories African-focused stories.
“I think just telling the African stories, being very original, saying what we have here globally and you will see. Bollywood, Indians, they will tell their story. They will speak their languages. Some people will be like ‘She likes grass roots so much,’ ‘We want to see cars,’ We want to see fashion. ‘Yes, we can see all these. Yes, the international needs to know we know fashion. We are good and we have got what it takes to be Western. But we are not. We are Africans.”
A Tribe Called Judah is currently showing across cinemas nationwide and the United Kingdom.
