Nollywood Actors Deserve Royalties Even When The Cameras Stop Rolling – Beverly Osu

Former BBNaija housemate Beverly Osu has come out to react to veteran actress Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde comparing her career earnings in Hollywood with Nollywood. She recently had her say via her social media page, and fans have been reacting.

It all started when Omotola revealed that despite spending just 4 years in Hollywood and doing only 2 test projects, she receives monthly residual payments. Meanwhile, after 3 decades in Nollywood with more than 310 projects, she gets no residuals or royalties for her creative work.

Reacting, Beverly said that Omotola’s observation had nothing to do with comparing nations, stressing that the movie star was focusing on the respect America has for its creatives.

The reality star added that the veteran was not a first-world vs third-world banter, and her focus was solely on more value and better structure.

Her words, “What Omotola posted is not about comparison of nations. It’s about the basic dignity of the artist.

Art is art. Work is work. Labor is labor. Residuals are a right, not a luxury.

Saying ‘don’t compare 1st world to 3rd world’ is a lazy argument that keeps us trapped.”

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.