The renowned Nollywood actress Bimbo Akintola has expressed doubts about some of her colleagues’ sources of income.
Akintola said in an interview with E Nolly TV that she was perplexed by some actresses’ abilities to live opulent lives given their meagre incomes from movie sales.
The 54-year-old referenced stories of celebrities having love affairs with lawmakers in order to increase their wealth.
“For a lot of actresses, people cannot understand where the money is coming from because we all know how much we earn. We all know how much we can earn. Unless you have money from a rich family. And some of the lifestyles that we see on social media can be real. And if it is real, where is the money coming from? People come to me to tell me about rich actresses, but I tell them I am not rich. I would say when you see them, ask them what they do,” she said.
“We know how much they sell films now. Has Iroko gone past N4 million? Africa Magic just went back to N4 million. They went down to N1.2 million for the whole film. Yes, there is also Netflix. Netflix is international. Obviously, the money is bigger.
“But we still know what people earn for cinema films. They started from cinemas before Netflix which boosted people. We also know how much they pay for these films. So when I see some of our colleagues I do not know if they are from a rich home or they have other businesses that they are doing.
“We have also heard stories of actresses dating politicians, and actresses doing stuff for politicians and getting paid for it. But it is not just actresses in Nigeria that do that. Women in Nigeria do that because the poverty level is pretty high. A lot of women are on the level that whatever I can do to sustain my family. Producers make more money than actors.”
