I was earning N1m per movie before I left Nigeria, Shola Shobowale

Shola Shobowale had been gracing our television screens for decades before she travelled to London for greener pastures. Even when she was abroad, she made it a prerogative to often come to Nigeria to shoot some movies.

In an exclusive chat with Saturday Beats, the delectable actress stated that she earned as much as N1m per feature before she left the country. She is staging a comeback and seems upset with the state of the industry.

“When I left Nigeria, I took the industry along with me. The industry was very fantastic when I left but the reverse is the case now. I am here to make it better. During my time I was earning as much as a million naira for a movie feature. Now, people are producing movies with N500,000. God bless those that are endorsing entertainers because without them, people would be crying. How many actors are living solely on acting? Most of them do businesses by the side. When you see a doctor, he faces his hospital solely but we are still struggling. Before I left Nigeria, my children went to the best schools in the country because I know the value of education. I raised them up solely with the money I made from acting. Their tertiary education would have been in Nigeria but the education system was nothing to write home about. The industry is bad but we are going to change it. Things are very bad now. The quality of our production is very bad. When I was in the UK, I was coming to Nigeria to produce movies. I made my money back on a few but I lost out on a lot. There was a movie I invested N5m on but did not make more than N2m. We don’t have distribution channels and the government is not helping. We rebranded Nigeria and changed people’s perception of the country. Now, Nigeria is no more seen as a drug trafficking country. Nigeria is the third largest movie producing country in the world but the government is doing nothing to help the industry,” she said.

Currently working on her soap opera, Nectar, she explained that the series revolves round family matters. She believes that the family values system in Nigeria is nothing to write home about.

“We don’t have family values anymore and that is why my soap opera, Nectar, is about family life. Mothers don’t know their onions any more as their children are going astray. My parents did not bring me up alone. It was a combined effort from friends, families and neighbours. There is nothing like that anymore,” she said.