Director Charles Novia fires AY, Kevin Ikeduba for their take on anomalies in Nollywood,

Nigerian film director, producer and screenwriter Charles Novia has fired back at comments earlier made by actor Kevin Ikeduba and comedian AY over the anomalies plaguing the Nigerian movie industry.

According to the filmmaker who also makes a living as an actor, social commentator and essayist, the comments made by the aforementioned personalities over interactive anomalies in Nollywood and the fake lifestyles are just a fuss.

Novia stated that, though he doesn’t subscribe to prescribed love or convenient brotherhood or sisterhood in Nollywood, but also said if the industry were to be always one directional, it would be boring.

He said thus in his reply on Instagram; “I have read some comments by some actors and others in Nollywood about fake lifestyles and practitioners hating on each other in secret and all that stuff.

“I don’t subscribe to prescribed love or convenient brotherhood or sisterhood in the industry. That’s silly to even believe it will or should happen.

“I don’t even see why those crying over interactive anomalies in Nollywood and the fake lifestyles are making a fuss. That’s the business, Damn it! It’s myopic to assume that your trajectory is everyone’s happiness. Bullcrap. If the industry were to be always one directional, it would be boring. There’s got to be real life characters carrying out the same things we portray in the movies.

“What the industry really need is a unity of purpose to grow the business. If the business grows and everyone prospers in their own endeavours within the business, who cares about the other person’s fake lifestyle? Faking it is part of the glitz and blitz life. There are always pretenders. There are those who will fake it till they die and never get to make it. There are those who will come round to being real eventually. It’s all a process of life, priorities, perception and personal inclinations.

Read also: Rivalry, backstabbing, enmity, ‘fakeness’ becoming a legacy in Nollywood –Comedian AY

“That’s why it’s an interesting industry to be in. And I don’t think this applies to only the film industry. My interactions with stand-up comedians show me that same rivalry is present as with the music industry.

“Rivalries are a natural process in the game. Rivalries and competition too builds the industry somewhat, however unhealthy the short run of such rivalries are or how extended they are. It generates a sense of purpose.

“If you want love, choose your posse. If you want cooperation, pay for it or show how beneficial it will be for everyone to cooperate with you on your idea. Times have moved on. Banks and owners of banks are the biggest rivals in the corporate sector in our country but when it comes to their business, they throw rivalries aside and harmonise to the CBN on their positions.

“We have a lot to learn from hard-nosed business people, not these cries of simulated ‘Kumbayas’ all over the place by people who are no less guilty of what they sometimes accuse others of.

Comedian AY had earlier gone public with his opinion on Nollywood when he wrote on his Instagram page that rivalry and the urge to live a fake life are some of the characteristics plaguing the movie industry.

The humour merchant revealed that much in response to a comment made on Instagram by actor Kevin Ikeduba who said he had seen the good, the bad and the ugly as an actor in the industry.

In particular reference to a part in the comment where Kevin Ikeduba said he had “experienced all sorts from the stables of the high and mighty self-entitled ‘stakeholders’, to the very insecure individuals whose only claim to fame is an old testament of fact “We started the industry”, AY replied saying rivalry and living a fake life among others are a regular feature in Nollywood.

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