Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde says the persistent persuasion of her colleague Ruth Kadiri pushed her to join filmmakers on YouTube.
The 47-year-old actress spoke in a recent interview on the Nollywood on Radio podcast. She detailed a pivotal meeting with Kadiri that occurred while she was on vacation in 2023.
According to Omotola, Kadiri presented a compelling case, describing the YouTube space as a phenomenal revolution.
I came on vacation in 2023, and I had a meeting with Ruth, and she called me. She was like, Mama, do you know what is going on? Well, there is a whole revolution with YouTube. She showed me numbers and everything, the actress said.
She said, You can do what you want to do on YouTube, but I think you should still get in on this phenomenon. I think you would do very well in it.
Anyway, she kept pressuring me. Ruth does not rest.
That girl gave me no peace of mind. And so I called my producer. I said, Let us do a production on this thing. I am just going to try. But if I don’t make it, nobody will see it.
And so that is how we shot the first project. And then, everything that would come out was keynotes. We finished shooting in four days, and we had the fifth day to just do cleanups. I surprised myself, actually. And I was very thankful to her for giving me the courage to even try.
She said the successful foray directly inspired her to shoot Mother’s Love, a feature film that later screened at the Toronto International Film Festival (TIFF).
Omotola revealed that the movie was born out of pressure to mark her full return to the industry.
Mother’s Love came as a story that I shot because I was under pressure to be honest. I am not even going to lie; I have been very truthful about the journey to Mother’s Love, she added.
I just talked to my producer and said, What if we did a feature film? And that was it. And immediately, back-to-back, we actually started planning for Mother’s Love. I just looked for it because I have stories.
And at the end of the day, we shot Mother’s Love’ in less than about two weeks.
That is why it took so long for it to come out. I was just self-conscious of myself, you know. And, you know, like, it is so people are laughing at me. Like, it is not good enough. Like, I do not have a choice.
Omotola’s journey onto the platform reflects a significant shift in Nollywood. While the massive production of movies on YouTube has been met with some criticism over quality, it has been applauded by others for its vast opportunities.
Last year, Kadiri revealed her own move to YouTube, citing the too many regulations in traditional Nigerian film production.
