Veteran actor Charles Inojie says today’s Nollywood makes stars overnight, with looks and hype counting for more than skill. Here’s what he really said.
Ever seen someone go from unknown to “Nollywood superstar” in what feels like a weekend? Charles Inojie has, and he’s not clapping.
The veteran actor says today’s industry makes stars overnight, and that looks and hype now count for more than knowledge and skill.
Here’s the thing, though. These comments aren’t new. Inojie spoke to media personality Chude Jideonwo about two years ago, and Chude reposted the conversation this week as a fresh episode. That’s why it’s suddenly everywhere again.
Comparing today with the Nollywood he came up in, Inojie didn’t dress it up. “Too much razzmatazz. Too much cosmetic beauty,” he said.
He isn’t against passion. He just doesn’t think it’s enough. What holds passion together, he explained, is what you know, the base your career stands on. “That is what we lack today,” he said.
Then he got even blunter. In his view, a young woman who thinks she’s pretty and, in most cases, doesn’t mind showing some skin can be a superstar by the next day. His worry is that films end up being about personalities when they should be about the story.
Inojie didn’t stop at the stars themselves. He pointed at the media too. According to him, outlets “hype people beyond what they can deliver,” handing out titles like Nollywood actress or Nollywood superstar to people whose work doesn’t quite match.
Sometimes, he said, he looks at the person being described and wonders if it’s even the same industry he and his colleagues built.
It helps to know who’s saying this. Inojie has been in Nollywood since the late 1990s as an actor, comedian, director and producer. You’d know him from Issakaba and My Village People. He also played Lucky in the sitcom The Johnsons for 13 years, until it wrapped in February 2024, and he became president of the Screen Writers Guild of Nigeria in 2016.
So this isn’t a random outsider complaining. It’s someone who has watched the industry change from the inside.
You’ll probably hear people disagree. Some will say new stars have worked hard for their spot, and that fame isn’t as easy as he makes it sound. But his question sticks around: when we’re so quick to crown people, are we really looking at the work?
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