Latest / DidiLawren / Funke Akindele Yelled At Me Over My Comments About Cinema Movies - Kunle Afolayan

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Funke Akindele Yelled At Me Over My Comments About Cinema Movies - Kunle Afolayan · DidiLawren

• 0:03
  Hello and welcome back to the episode of Bassett Lorenzi.
• 0:06
  How are you all doing if you're doing great?
• 0:08
  For today's episode, I want to talk about Funke Akindele.
• 0:11
  Funke Akindele is in hot waters or Funke Akindele.
• 0:15
  They've been bashing Funke Akindele since towards the end
• 0:19
  of last year over cinema space or cinema slots or even
• 0:24
  cinematic movies. Now for some of you who don't
• 0:27
  know, Funky Kindle is a Nollywood actress, a producer, a
• 0:31
  writer, a listen. Funky Kindle wears all the
• 0:35
  hearts and she started, you know, very humble.
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  Most times Funky Kindle was playing Walker pass roles.
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  We used to laugh at her then because all our movies were
• 0:45
  really just short, short, funny, funny kind of kids.
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  Not like laughing at her, but because of the roles that she
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  was played, it was funny. It was short, but you could
• 0:58
  regardless of the role, you will tell that this is Fuka Kindle.
• 1:01
  She will play it in her own way. And she used to complain then
• 1:05
  that producers weren't using her because she wasn't that
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  conventional beauty. You know, she wasn't curvy like
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  Messy Johnson. She does not have the face of
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  Genevieve or the colour of Rita Dominic.
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  So she was kind of in a weird space where she wasn't utilised
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  in, you know, her maximum capacity until YouTube came
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  along. Funky Kindle released the diary
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  of Jennifer or Jennifer's diary, and that went viral.
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  She produced that movie. She or that.
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  Yeah, because it was a series and then it became a movie or it
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  was a movie and then became a series.
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  So since then, Funky Kindle has been going from strength to
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  strength. She moved into producing cinema
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  movies that was a blockbuster. Funky accidentally, you know,
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  she's funny. So the way she promotes her
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  movies, she dances, she sings, you know, she's all this because
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  she's funny. So she it is easy for her to
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  just do skits to promote her Movies.
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  Now last year because for you know for some years now Funky
• 2:24
  Akindale has dominated the cinema world.
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  I think Messi Igbi tried breaking in, he wasn't
• 2:33
  successful. Toya Imaku, she did well.
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  Both Funky Akindale still dominated the cinema producer
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  afoulin he tried that did not work in Yerdo in Yerdo tried.
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  And we all know how she came out last year crying about how she
• 2:58
  wasn't getting cinematics slots. They were put in her movies, you
• 3:02
  know, later and listen, she just everybody was just complaining,
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  especially last year. It was the end of last year.
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  People produce movies so that they could sell or sell tickets
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  in cinemas. And also Funke Akindili
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  dominated the cinemas. Now, Nollywood producer and
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  actor Kuler Aflion, he said he was in the movie production
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  class or something like that for his seminar.
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  And he was asked about, you know, cinema and how the current
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  promotion of movies are. And he said that he's not
• 3:41
  willing to be dancing like Funke Akindili.
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  So I think that got to Funke. I think she's had it because,
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  you know, towards the end of last year, people said a whole
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  lot about Funka Kindle, that she's bribing people, she's
• 3:56
  doing this, she's doing that. And one of the things that
• 4:00
  Cooley Fly on hinted on is that he doesn't want to make one or 2
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  billion in box office and then get 10 million naira profits.
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  You can imagine you, you know, produce a movie, get investors
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  in and he said that before you pay investors and pay actors,
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  pay everybody, probably your profit is just, you know, 10
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  million naira. So he said he doesn't want to do
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  any of those thing. So Funke did not like that.
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  According to the story, he called, she called Kule a flyer.
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  She called him to say certain things.
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  Anyway, I'm just going to play a video where Kule was explaining
• 4:43
  the conversation he had with Funky Akin daily.
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  OK, well, that's something I I was hoping I'll avoid.
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  But for the benefit of, you know, our lovers, you know,
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  people have reached out to say we know you didn't mean look,
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  I'm a product of travelling theatre and travelling cinema,
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  meaning our parents like will go around streets, you know, trying
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  to get people to come to this theatre by dancing.
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  And I've said this before, it is great.
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  All right, for film over the years.
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  I mean, I will take my children to the cinema and then we will
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  be pretty much dragging people to say, look, come on, watch.
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  I feel and I'm saying in recent times.
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  But it for me is draining. And I never said anything was
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  wrong with it. Listen, don't get called me
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  yesterday and all she was saying, and that is why I felt
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  maybe there was more to it than beyond.
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  I don't know what you know. She called her and she said, oh,
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  Mr Falina, I don't, I know you don't like me, but don't mention
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  my name in your interviews. Was she angry or she wanted?
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  No, she was yelling. Oh, and she dropped the phone
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  after that. And I texted her and I said I
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  don't know what you know must have caused this, but it's fine.
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  And I explained a few things to her and that was it.
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  Tony and I, Tony Abraham and I spoke until Tony said, I want,
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  can you say that I've turned into a skit that I go what
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  you're saying? And in our skit you were saying,
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  people, please come and come and watch my film so I can make more
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  than 10 million. The honest truth is my I was, it
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  was a forum. It was a business, film business
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  forum. And we had the cinema operators
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  there and the cinema operators were asking me when are you
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  coming back to cinema? And I said, I can't come to
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  cinema if you cannot guarantee that I will make substantial
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  money. Because if you make 2 million
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  and I will repeat it, if you make 3 billion, I said it life
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  more. Abdul was there DG or Ed of
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  Census Board? A lot of you know, people were
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  there. And I said, let's do the math.
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  I've been, I've been doing this for almost 30 years.
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  Let's do the maths. If we make 2 billion after the
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  sharing and the tax deduction and all of that, what will
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  probably come to you will be maybe 500.
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  If you have stakeholders, investors that are more than two
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  or three, what comes to you at the end of the day, you know,
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  so, so it was simple mathematics.
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  I have absolutely nothing against fun care.
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  And I mentioned last week I was in Kaduna at Rama Film Festival
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  and I was in a master class and I was addressing young people
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  and I clearly said to them that if you want to adopt A model
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  that I think you know will work for you now, they'll follow
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  Funky Kindle is model. I'm going to get the video and
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  I'll put it. And I said follow up because
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  Funky started, you know, at a younger age and then she did
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  Jennifer with minimal budget, which was a runaway success.
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  Exactly. And I said, Jennifer, look was,
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  you know, like, I mean, and I said from there, look at Funke's
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  brand now she has grown, you know, he's a consistent growth.
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  And I, and what I was saying is, look, I, I, I, I can't do what
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  they're doing because I feel that how they have too much so
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  much energy and he's working for them.
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  As a matter of fact, you. Don't have?
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  Energy. No, no, no.
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  Listen, do you know how many things I do?
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  I run a result, all right? I have a cultural centre in
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  Lagos, right? I have an Academy that trains
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  people like you know, and we have partners that are not even
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  Nigerians. So I do both.
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  Film is my core film gave birth to all of these other things.
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  So I do things in the ecosystem of, you know, cinema, film and
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  television. So I have I, I mean, I ask our
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  colleagues, I support people's people's project.
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  I support people's initiative. I don't know what, you know, got
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  into Funke, but I have absolutely nothing against that.
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  And I didn't say they shouldn't dance.
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  I just said that we can have as well fact that three days ago at
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  the conference, Mahabudu said the same thing.
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  Mahabudu said, oh, I gave it to Funke and Toy.
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  But the reason why she's opening a platform, she's opening a new
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  distribution platform, she said is because the cinema thing, you
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  know, for her, she's not sure. And that is why she announced
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  there's a film they're about to do and they're releasing in
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  this, but they are releasing in December.
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  And she already announced now and she pulled, she brought
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  together like make the major cinema owners so that everybody
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  shares the risk. I think the decentralisation of
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  distribution in Nigeria has caused a whole lot of problems.
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  When it was Alaba International, when the Ebo traders were
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  involved in the distribution of Nollywood movies, it was not
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  this complicated. It was straightforward.
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  They were, they knew exactly who they were selling to.
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  They had the clients, they had the customers, they had people
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  who buy in bulk and then sell. Yes, they were piracy, people
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  pirated movies, but everybody made money.
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  I think what YouTube has created is, you know, everybody can now
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  produce movies, put it on YouTube and you know, take your
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  chances. Cinemas has always been there,
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  but I think cinema right now, they took it to the next level
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  where people or producers or actors now use cinemas as red
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  carpets. You know, it was, it's more like
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  the Oscars or the Met galas where people, you're not just
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  coming to watch a movie, especially during the premiere,
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  they dress. So they spend a whole lot of
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  money. People or producers.
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  Since actors and actresses moved into movie production, it has
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  become a very, very money consuming venture.
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  YouTube movies, yes, anybody can produce and put on YouTube, but
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  there's no guarantee. Blessing Sunday.
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  She's complained that she's produced.
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  She spent over I think 100 million naira producing movie
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  that she has not even made-up to 10 million back.
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  So there are risk to every production or every distribution
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  channel. But I think what he was trying
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  to see is that especially in cinema or cinema movies or
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  movies that are people produce specifically for cinemas.
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  Because you know, there are different channels.
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  Some people produce for Prime, some people produce for Netflix,
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  some people produce for cinema YouTube.
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  So some listen. So people who are producing for
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  cinema spends a whole lot of money because you still have to
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  market this. If you put it on Prime, you know
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  that Prime is going to Amazon is going to promote the movie.
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  If you put it on Netflix, Netflix will promote the movie.
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  If you put it on YouTube, YouTube, you have to put it on a
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  platform where they have like maybe millions of subscribers or
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  you have to promote. If it's your channel, you have
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  to promote that movie. So there are so many ways to
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  promote a movie, but cinema, you have to dance, you have to reach
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  out to people who you want to watch those movies.
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  It has to be grassroots. It has to be communicating
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  one-on-one to people. And the way Funky Kindle has
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  done it is producing skits, paying, you know, influencers,
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  getting influencers to, you know, dance to those movies,
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  wear the T-shirts, wear the branding.
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  They do T-shirts. They do track suits.
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  They do a whole lot of things to produce, to promote the movies.
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  Now, what Kunle is saying is that that cost a whole lot of
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  money. It will cost you maybe 99% of
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  your budget to produce and to market or to promote that movie.
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  And he is not willing to do that.
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  Now Funja Kindle's case is different because I don't think
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  she she's into so many things. She's into real estate.
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  She has so many clients that pay for advert placements in her
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  movies. So before even production, she
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  has recovered all the money that she's using to produce that
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  movie. Even the promotional aspects of
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  the of the whole thing, people still putting money to promote
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  those movies because they want their brand to be shown.
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  So if you are not from Kayakin Daily, if you don't have that
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  reach, if you don't have that coverage, if you don't have
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  those brands backing you up, then you can't make money from
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  those things. You can't make money from
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  cinemas because you can make 1 billion, two billion, just like
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  Kuliaf said and your take home will be 10,010 million naira.
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  If you are willing to take that risk, then it's fine.
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  What you need to say that you know, she, she didn't make
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  anything. She has investors.
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  There's she didn't make anything because she's thinking making 1
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  billion. It's just like, oh, making 2
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  billion in cinemas is just producing movies, putting it out
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  there and cinemas giving you slots.
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  It doesn't work that way. So I think people are hating on
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  Funke because she has figured out how to market her brand.
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  It took her a long time. It took Funke a very long time
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  to know what people need, work on it and get built.
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  You know, a village around her, a village of people who are
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  willing to invest, not just invest for something in return,
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  but to invest in promotional aspects, in adverse placement.
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  So she makes her money. I can understand why she's angry
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  because it, it is too much. Last year people were bashing
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  her. People talked a whole lot about
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  Funka kindly saying that she's stopping everybody from making
• 15:49
  money in cinemas. So I, I guess why she's, she's
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  fed up. She's had it.
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  So what do you think? Do you think that Funke is
• 15:59
  actually kind of monopolising cinema, or do you think that
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  people or actresses who produce movies are just lazy?
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  They don't want to do what Funke is doing.
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  They don't want to pay for promotion.
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  They don't want to because show business, movie business is show
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  business. If you're focusing just on the
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  show and not looking at the business side of things, looking
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  at the the advert placements, looking at people who are going
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  to sponsor your movie, sponsors are very important, especially
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  if you're going to sink in millions of naira in the movie.
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  You make sure that people who are sponsoring you are not just
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  people who are waiting for for returns on their investment,
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  people who want to place their products on your movie and they
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  are paying you for that advert placement.
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  That is where the money is. And until Kule and his
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  counterparts realise that this is what Funke Akindeli is doing,
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  this is how she makes her money, they're always going to be
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  complaining. They're always going to be
• 17:03
  ranting more abudu. I think what she's doing, she's
• 17:07
  just trying to create her own ecosystem, her own distribution
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  channel, which there's nothing wrong with that, but you still
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  have to advertise it and you either pay influencers or you
• 17:21
  dance. So what do you think?
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  Do you think that they're just hating on Funky or do you think
• 17:26
  that Funky kindly is just stopping everybody from making
• 17:31
  billions and keeping their billions?
• 17:33
  Let me know what you think. Please subscribe to this channel
• 17:35
  like like I shared. Thank you very much for
• 17:37
  watching. Bye bye.