Nollywood actress, Rita Dominic has come out to react to criticisms directed at her for celebrating the life of Nigeria’s first female combatant pilot, the late Tolulope Arotile.

A fan, Vixen Nelly recently blasted the movie star for celebrating the deceased after her death, not when she was alive.

Reacting, Rita Dominic simply wrote that Tolulope’s short life can still be seen as an inspiration to others.

She added that Vixen Nelly should also learn to use her page to celebrate others as it will help the people around her.

What do you think?

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.