Mothercloud News

Nollywood actress and producer Jaiyeola “Jaiye” Kuti has talked about the never-stopping hustle needed to make it in Nigeria’s film scene. Recently she stated that after investing massively in her second movie with her partner, she went to the streets to dance to promote it.
“After spending money with my partner to produce the movie, I’d gone to the street to dance to make people know about it”, Kuti said. “If I didn’t do that,
nobody would know the movie existed.”
The actress, popularly known for her Yoruba-language films, has been frank with the harsh marketing realities facing filmmakers in Nigeria, especially those who are not backed by large streaming platforms or corporate sponsors.
The comment by Kuti alludes to one hard truth in Nollywood: making a good movie is only half the battle. How to get audiences in to see it is another battle altogether. After spending, according to Kuti, over N100 million-one of the biggest amounts in the standards of Nollywood production-in putting her latest flick Alagbede (Blacksmith) together, she still felt it fit to organize a dance parade to create some hype in the streets of Yaba, Lagos, for 150 people. Not just for entertainment; it was a calculated move.
In such a crowded market, with content and promotional budgets at a premium, filmmakers are now coming up with ever more inventive ways of breaking through the din. Kuti’s street dance wasn’t just a promo-the event was an effort to launch a grassroots campaign, draw awareness toward her creative work, and generate a sense of ownership towards the project.
Although streaming giants such as Netflix and Amazon are paying more attention to Nigerian content these days, for the greater part, local producers still work independently, sustaining both creative and financial risks. Kuti’s story encapsulates the torture of many: raising capital, production management, then becoming street marketers once the film is finished.
“This Nigerian audience is diverse and distracted. You can’t just drop a film and hope it finds its audience,” Kuti explained in another interview. “You have to go and find your audience. Meet them where they are. Remind them that this movie was made for them.”
Kuti’s determination, like a hallmark of the resilience and entrepreneurial spirit that have
characterized the very rise of Nollywood, is emblematic of the determination by passionate creators who continue growing the industry against all odds-from infrastructural to funding challenges, oftentimes wearing the different hats of a writer, director, producer, and marketer.
Even as Alagbede is scheduled for a premiere on April 19, 2024, she hopes that the forward will judge the sacrifices. For Kuti, it is more than the movie; it is street-and-street-style networking.