Ibrahim Chatta And I Are Not Competing – Kunle Afolayan

Ibrahim Chatta and Kunle Afolayan

Nollywood filmmaker Kunle Afolayan has dismissed suggestions of rivalry between himself and Ibrahim Chatta. He recently had his say at the watch party of “Anikulapo: The Ghoul Awakens” held at Igbojaye, Oyo State, with Ibrahim also present at the event.

According to him, he and Chatta are working towards preserving culture and heritage with the establishment of their film villages, not competing with each other.

Kunle added that he has invited Ibrahim to his film village several times, so it was nice to finally have him around.

His words, “We are both doing everything possible to uplift the glory of all, not just our ancestors, but the lineage and where we are from, from the root. There’s Afri Chatta in Oyo and you haven’t been there, you should go there.

Many of the films you’ve seen were shot at Afri Chatta resorts and film studio. There is no competition! We are not even doing the same thing. And this is the first time he is going to come here. Even though I’ve invited him severally, but I’m guilty too.”

WOW.

Nollywood is a sobriquet that originally referred to the Nigerian film industry. The origin of the term dates back to the early 2000s, traced to an article in The New York Times. Due to the history of evolving meanings and contexts, there is no clear or agreed-upon definition for the term, which has made it a subject to several controversies.

The origin of the term “Nollywood” remains unclear; Jonathan Haynes traced the earliest usage of the word to a 2002 article by Matt Steinglass in the New York Times, where it was used to describe Nigerian cinema.

Charles Igwe noted that Norimitsu Onishi also used the name in a September 2002 article he wrote for the New York Times. The term continues to be used in the media to refer to the Nigerian film industry, with its definition later assumed to be a portmanteau of the words “Nigeria” and “Hollywood”, the American major film hub.

Film-making in Nigeria is divided largely along regional, and marginally ethnic and religious lines. Thus, there are distinct film industries – each seeking to portray the concern of the particular section and ethnicity it represents. However, there is the English-language film industry which is a melting pot for filmmaking and filmmakers from most of the regional industries.