60-year-old veteran actor, Yemi Solade, says the Nollywood industry is full of prostitutes, yahoo-yahoo boys, and people of questionable moral character.
The famous actor dropped the huge bombshell during an interview with Nigerian Tribune, statting how displeased he is with the current industry and how unguarded it is, noting that anyone can come and go as they please.
He went on to talk about how the current trend in the movie industry is having yahoo-yahoo boys and prostitutes take up notable roles. According to him, ‘it has become all-comers affairs.’
He said, “Nollywood is not there right now. The Nollywood you see is all-encompassing. It’s an uncompleted building that is not guarded and what you meet there would amaze you.
“It has become an all-comers affair, anybody can stroll in and act. All the Yahoo boy are now there, all the prostitutes that you can imagine are there.
“People can’t even discern between the core professionals and these class of clowns who have infiltrated the association. But they didn’t just fly in, people you call professionals brought them in.
“It’s just so porous that anybody can become an actor, the entry point is so porous and annoying. It’s a profession and it must be handled and treated as one.
“I am not really pleased with the state of the industry. It’s a professional body and we must portray ourselves as one that has mastered the art and craft of the profession.”
The veteran actor is not the first to make the claim as star actress Ayo Mogaji once stated how many Nollywood actors were prostitutes in an interview with TVC.
There have also been claims of sexual assault by actors (both upcoming and stellar) from top directors and producers in the Nigerian movie industry.
One wonders whether it’s time for a separate body to be set to task to root out and clean up the industry of the bad eggs before the rot gets too deep and everyone gets polluted.
What do you think?