Tolulope Ajiboye and Osahon Okodugha are the founders of www.nollywoodmistakes.com, an entertainment website that points out mistakes in Nollywood movies.
What is your attraction to Nollywood?
As crappy as most of us say Nollywood is we’re still one of the biggest in the world. The Nollywood movies we watched 10 years ago aren’t the same quality today. Even if you say you don’t like Nigerian movies, you simply cannot deny the huge improvement in the movies. It’s not just ritualists and murderers anymore. The story lines the scriptwriters are coming up with these days are really great. Progress is very visible. That’s undeniable.
What made you decide to start the website?
Maybe it was to entertain Nollywood viewers. Maybe it was too constructively criticise. Maybe it’s a little of both but then it pretty much boils down to the love we have for Nollywood in general.
What has the response been to the website?
It’s really good. At the risk of blowing our own trumpet, there’s really no other site that does what we do. The response has been very good. It’s basically for entertainment and we successfully entertain a lot of people all over the world.
Have you ever had a producer or director say something very negative or attack you?
Good you asked this. As expected, yes we have, privately and publicly in our comments section. They need to know we’re not out to run them down. You’ll find out that all the best Hollywood movies have mistakes and these movies still gross wonderfully in the box office. The mistakes are just for fun and nothing more. We have also received positive and supportive comments too from stakeholders.
Is there a Nollywood movie that you have watched that does not have a mistake?
No. There really isn’t. As no one is perfect, so are our movies. We’ll like to say at this point that in some cases, it’s the unconventional movies that have the most mistakes. Last Flight to Abuja for example is simply not your typical Nigerian movie. It’s a break from the norm. They pushed their limits. That’s why they had a lot of mistakes. But the way we see it, it’s very good. It’s the ones that have cliché stories, stories that don’t push the regular Nigerian limits and don’t really impress us.
What impact do you wish for your site to have?
We hope to entertain people and make people laugh. We also hope to be a voice for the Nollywood lovers because there are a lot of Nollywood fans. We’d like to be an avenue for them; to let the people directly involved know what they are doing right and what they are doing wrong. We hope to be the voice of the people.
Do you intend to start more websites?
Eventually, we will but that won’t be easy. You have no idea the amount of time we put into each movie. This one is already very time consuming but hopefully, we will start more.
Which other Nollywood websites do you like?
There’s nollywoodreinvented.com and nollywoodmindspace.com
What is your view on New Nollywood?
Frankly, new Nollywood is good and very interesting. People actually pay at the cinemas to see Nollywood movies? Come on. You can’t deny that new Nollywood is good…and getting better.
If you could change anything about Nollywood, what would it be?
Nollywood is improving. We would want better scripts; scripts that tell a new story. Hollywood movies spend big money on their movies. Their budgets are amazing and at the end of the day, they get mind-blowing results. We want the same for Nollywood. When Avengers was released, tickets in all the cinemas were sold out. People even sat on the stairs. We want tickets for Nollywood movies to sell out too. We want people to sit on the stairs to see Genevieve and Jim Iyke or O.C. Ukeje and Ini Edo.
Who are your favourite Nollywood actors?
To choose one is very hard. We seem to like O.C. Ukeje though. And then there’s Ramsey Nouah. We like how Ramsey isn’t always a loverboy. It’s good to see him play a mean role. For the females, we seem to love Uche Jombo a lot. Nse Ikpe-Etim is also an amazing actress. How can we forget Funke Akindele? The list for both sexes is endless.
Please can you provide us with fun statistics you have gathered over time on the website?
The most amazing (probably the most shocking) thing about the website is probably the fact most of our views don’t even come from Nigeria. Most our viewers come from the UK and the US. Not just that, they’re almost double of the views from Nigeria. I thought it was ‘Nollywood’?
Interviewed by Isabella Akinseye
