My Dad Completely Discouraged Any Of Us From Going Into Acting Or Filmmaking – Kunle Afolayan

Kunle Afolayan and Adeyemi Afolayan

Top Nigerian filmmaker, Kunle Afolayan has recounted how his late father, Adeyemi Afolayan aka Adelove, one of the pioneers of filmmaking in Nigeria, urged him and his siblings to delve into other professions rather than acting and filmmaking.

In a recent interview, Kunle Afolayan revealed that his father wanted some of his children to become lawyers due to a lack of robust income in filmmaking at the time.

Talking about his father, the filmmaker said;

“He said there was no money. Just go and be a lawyer.

“My father completely discouraged any of us from going into acting or filmmaking. He said do you want to be running around like I’m running around.

“And those were things I learned which helped me structure the business side of what I do because I don’t want to end up like them.

“I remember after he passed then Nollywood came and then I would see these films with beautiful stories then I would be comparing them to the film of my dad and Ogunde with the production quality but how come the audio is bad, how come the makeup is lousy, how can we do and this and I said ok I want to be a filmmaker, I never said I wanted to be an actor.

“I went to Tade Ogidan and he said ok when we have something I will call you.

“I also went to Tunde Kilani, he said who are you to say you want to make a film?

“That your dad was a filmmaker doesn’t make you one, you have to learn it. Go to school and complete your education and then when they wanted to do ‘Saworo Ide’ in 1998, he called me to come and I auditioned. I played the role eventually but still wanted to make a film.”