Stop Assuming Nollywood Actors Are Rich – Shine Roseman

Nollywood actress Shine Roseman has said that the widespread belief that all Nigerian actors are wealthy is an overrated misconception. She recently made the revelation during a recent podcast hosted by fellow actor Baaj Adebule, and fans have been reacting.

Stressing that Nigerians are wrong to think every Nollywood star is wealthy simply because they appear on television screens and red carpets, Shine shared that the reality behind the scenes is very different.

Roseman added that acting alone does not always provide the kind of income many people imagine.

Her words, “The most overrated misconception about Nollywood stars is that we have money.

I don’t know why people assume we have money. Some of us do have money, but from other ventures. But many of us are struggling financially. Fame Doesn’t Always Mean Money.”

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.