Veteran Nigerian filmmaker Kunle Afolayan has said he would only fully return to cinema releases if filmmakers are no longer required to wear themselves out with aggressive promotional tactics, such as dancing on social media, to market their films.
Afolayan made the comments at the Lagos Business of Film Summit, where he spoke about how film promotion has evolved and the strain it places on creatives.
“For cinema, I’m one of the people who started the cinema gig, and dancing before anybody. I danced in London too, not just locally,” he said.
Reflecting on his early years in the industry, the filmmaker described the process as physically and mentally demanding.
“In 2006, I did all the runs, and it was exhausting. I want to make a film if you can guarantee I don’t have to dance to sell that film. We need to come up with other strategies. How do we sell without exhausting ourselves?” he said.
He also admitted he struggles to keep up with the intense promotional routines adopted by some of his colleagues.
“I don’t know how the likes of Funke Akindele and others are doing it — creating skits every day, changing costumes all the time. I can’t do it,” Afolayan said.
The filmmaker revealed that he has several projects that have been in development for over four years and noted that he remains open to producing them if more sustainable marketing approaches are adopted.
This is not the first time Afolayan has voiced such concerns. Earlier, at the watch party for his Netflix series Aníkúlápó: The Ghouls Awaken, he spoke openly about what he described as a gap between loudly celebrated cinema achievements and the actual revenue received by filmmakers.
“I don’t want two billion streams at the cinemas and end up receiving ten million naira,” he said.
