Nollywood is simply a nick or a subriquet for the Nigerian movie industry or basically just Nigerian movies. Nollywood started sometime in the 19 century and is considered one of the biggest movie industries in the world today. The likes of Pete Edochie, Jim Iyke, Genevieve Nnaji Mercy Johnson and Ramsey Noah are some of the many superstars of Nollywood.
My Journey so far in Nollywood
I wouldn't really call it a journey because I've hardly even moved but then "Rome wasn't built in a day" so yes, it's a journey. Before I continue, let me briefly talk about my love for movies.
When I was a kid, we didn't have a TV set at home but my neighbors had. So I was always snooping around looking for a place to watch TV. The common things you can watch on TV back then are programs aired on the Nigerian Television Authority (NTA) channel such as the "Pink Panther", "Tales by moonlight" etcetera, while those who owned VCRs mostly had Indian movie cassettes to watch on their TV sets. Most weekends I'll have to carefully walk around people's houses with my ears to the ground hoping to hear some movie sounds so i could go watch. Some of my major challenges then was that the neighbors were hardly welcoming, sometimes I'd have to do chores in their houses just to be able to watch some TV. And my dad too wasn't very comfortable with the idea of me going to watch TV at the neighbor's. Sometimes i get some ass-whooping for coming back to the house late. Well, he eventually bought a TV set just so I'd stop going out. I remember how I and my brother would do some role plays after watching some action movies. Movies like the Equalizer 2000, Tufan, Disco Dancer, Commando, Hard way the only way, No retreat No surrender, The Five Elements of Ninja, Rambo, Drunken Master and etcetera, always had us jumping all over the place whenever we saw them. I remember getting some major ass-whooping after I got caught tying my neighbor's kid to a banana tree during one of our role plays. Movies have always been very important to me.
So.. It all started for me after I saw Leonardo's "Titanic 🚢" movie. That was when I realized that I wanted to become an actor. That movie took me to places in the land on imagination. Though, that was pretty much all at the time, Imaginations.
My first audition would have been in 2010, but I couldn't go through with it due to financial restraints. It was in 2013, just after the academic staffs of my school joined in the national strike headed by the Academic Staff Union of Universities (ASUU) that I finally made a decision to talk to a friend from the eastern part of Nigeria where most of the film making are done, about my passion for acting. He immediately hooked me up with his friend who's currently a fast rising actor in the industry, not long after that, I traveled to the east and I featured in my first movie titled "Widows Testimony", tho i was only able to secure a scene in the movie. And immediately after that I featured in the movie "Days of struggle", two scenes this time and the third movie titled "Shantel". Things were looking promising but then just when I started to meet people and making more connects, the ASSU-strike was suspended and my school resumed so I had to go back to school. For a fact that my school is located in the North, far from nollywood activities, I had to put everything on hold until I graduated in 2016.
To unpause my acting career and get right back on track, when I applied for the compulsory National Youth Service Corp, I made sure to select states where film making is rampant and that's how I got to be stationed at Enugu state. So far it has not been going well, I've been away from the industry for several years, my connects have gone high up the ladder and hard to reach. I've been going for auditions but I only get extras once in a long while.
I am still hopeful tho, and I will keep on pushing until I find a big gig that will put me right back in the game of film making. I auditioned recently for a new TV series "Ojukwu" by ROCSTUDIOS and i'm hopeful even though one of their criteria for casting is "Igbo language", which I can't speak but am still hopeful cos it will be a big break for me if am casted.
So that's it basically, my short story about my Journey in Nollywood. Thanks for reading. Please upvote and follow me so we can continue to share experiences. Thanks again.