TAGGING Amayo Uzo Phillips is by no means an easy task. The multi-award winning actor, producer, director and scriptwriter represents so many things to so many people. The Enugu-based director and producer of many credits and a 1984 graduate of Theatre Arts of the University of Jos was first known nationally for throwing up two of Nollywood’s best-known actors – Chinedu Ikedieze and Osita Iheme.

Amayo it was, who produced and directed Aki Nu Ukwa, the comedy flick that turned Ikedieze and Iheme, both recipients of the national honours of Member of the Federal Republic (MFR), into household names. It was their participation in that commercially successful comic movie that earned Ikedieze and Iheme the alias of Aki and Paw Paw.  With Aki Nu Ukwa, Amayo became noted as one of Nigeria’s finest comedy directors, producers and scriptwriters. Members of his generation, particularly those who trained with him in Jos and who followed him as he let out impeccable portrayal on stage as an actor, know him as a dependable stage actor and director.  But with the emergence of the Nollywood phenomenon, Amayo became the undisputed  ‘King’ or ‘Igwe’ of movie making east of the Niger and one of the most respected producers and directors in Nollywood.

A devout Christian and father of five who clocked 55 last week, Amayo has always been in the arts. His journey down this road started while he was in secondary school. The Weight of Life, the first script he penned shortly after he left secondary school in 1978, was produced to critical acclaim. To prepare himself for career and life, Amayo enrolled to study Theatre Arts at the University of Jos. He graduated in 1984 and was sent to undergo the compulsory National Youth Service programme (NYSC) in Lagos, from where he helped to establish the NYSC drama group.  Upon completion of the NYSC scheme, Amayo stayed on to practice theatre arts and even partnered at some point with the late Funsho Alabi and since then, he has not done anything outside theatre practice.  “I don’t regret the decision I took to remain a theatre artiste. I have achieved a lot,” he said.

Humble and unpretentiously friendly, Amayo hit the right notes when he produced and directed the critically acclaimed two- part comic movie Aki Nu Ukwa. It was the success of that movie that announced him just as the movie turned the lead actors into instant celebrities. What motivated the production of the movie that is recorded as one of the highest selling movies in Nollywood? He offers: “I just wanted to do something different and in my usual way, I wanted to throw up new talents in the area of acting.  That is all I do now, really training and discovering talents and also helping the newly discovered talents to find their feet in the industry. Chinedu who played Aki was already with us in the industry for a while but there were no kiddies’ stories that time. So, he got frustrated and started following Lancelot Imaseun to do continuity but before then, the industry was more prone to doing rituals and blood money stories and I was not comfortable with that trend.

“Besides, the ritual and blood money clips were already giving Nigeria a bad name outside the country. So, when I returned, I resolved to do something different. So I started writing comedy scripts but the marketers won’t touch them because of the fear that they won’t sell. Luckily, I met the boss of KASVID Productions who asked me to do a story on a problem child, something around the movie Home Alone.  I took up the challenge and by the time the script was ready, the first person that came to mind was Chinedu Ikedieze who was then a student at the Institute of Management Technology (IMT). He had done a few things on screen that I saw and so I sent for him. I was later told that there was someone like Chinedu called Osita but he was based in Aba. So I sent for him too. It was on my set that they met for the very first time, became friends and today they are inseparable.

“We shot that movie in only two and half days. After that, I went on to shoot another movie and while I was doing that, Aki Nu Ukwa came out and it blew like a storm. It was everywhere. That was how Chinedu and Osita shot to limelight. I am very happy for them because each success they record is my success. They eat with kings now and get red carpet reception wherever they go. When they were each given the MFR title, I was extremely delighted. I am happy to be a part of their story. Each time I remember them, I always remember that God is able to do all things, taking somebody of their nature from nothing to something. Those men are brand names now’’.

Director of Drummer Boy and director, writer, producer and actor of the epic movie The Python, Amayo is of the opinion that one of the things that have stifled Nollywood is the lack of professionalism in the industry. “There are a lot of quacks in Nollywood,” he says. Amayo thinks that the industry needs ‘regulation’ if it must develop further. He said: “The truth is that the industry we have now is running on its own and it lacks proper regulation. We are hoping there will be sanity once we have a body like the Motion Picture Practitioners Council (MOPPICON) in place. We need such a structure to regulate practice as we have with advertising, the law profession and others. The guilds also have to be organized. But proper organization, I think, will come with MOPPICON”.

A stickler for professionalism whose interest is in discovering talents and nurturing them to stardom, Amayo, director of the movies, Wives, Zoza, Recharge Card, Bullet, Died to Save, Baby Police, Sacred Tradition, Good Mother, Lion Finger and the award winning flick Pastor’s Blood, is not happy that movies produced in Igbo language have suddenly disappeared from the radar. In the glory days of Nollywood, it was movies produced in Igbo language that sustained it. Amayo however blames the dearth of Igbo language movies on some practitioners who as he said “got very lazy and started copying”.

He explained that there is an ongoing effort to reverse the trend. “I think the problem is that after sometime, we started to copy rather than being original. You run out of ideas when you are not original. But I started a movement in 2007 called Omenigbo and the idea was to revive and sustain Igbo language movies and I started shooting Igbo movies. That actually led to the shooting of the film Odum Na Akwa Eke which was a huge success. Then we also released Ikenna, which made waves. I am aware of several other efforts aimed at reviving movies in Igbo language. But we must be original to be able to get the audience to buy the movies”.

Director of critically acclaimed movies like Naked Wrestler, Cain and Abel, Toronto Connection, Chicken Madness and the Prof and Den-Gun, Amayo says he still has a long game to play in Nollywood and would keep playing the game as long as God spares him.

“There is no retirement in the game. You stay on until your body says ‘no, I cannot continue’. There are stories that have not been told that we still have to tell. So we will keep writing, acting, directing and producing. We have not even scratched the surface of the stories that we have in Nigeria, not to talk of stories that abound in Africa. I thank God for my life and I pray He grants me long life and keep me in good health to be able to do more exploits and to be able to train my children”.

A word for upcoming acts and Amayo offers: “I will advice them to be themselves and to come into the profession with an open mind. They must also not be desperate to make it. It is the desperation to make it at all cost that destroys.  It is not a do or die affair. If you are good, you will definitely be discovered. Even if it looks as though it won’t happen, one day, God will use someone to discover you some day. I believe that if you persevere and don’t fall into the sex-for-role trap, your time will definitely come. People who offer sex for roles, are never taken seriously”.

Celebritygist… Kunle Afolayan In Japan With Figurine, Phone Swap

AWARD-WINNING actor and movie director, Kunle Afolayan, is making another groundbreaking entry into the Asian movie market as he takes his recent works, Figurine and Phone Swap to Tokyo, Japan. His foray into Tokyo is at the invitation of Cinema Africa, a non-profit organization established in 2006 to develop understanding and appreciation of Africa in Japan through African films made by African filmmakers or producers.

The film festival billed to take place between May 18 and 23, would screen Phone Swap on May 17 and Figurine May 18 at the Auditorium Shibuya, Tokyo. In recognition of his immense contributions and recognition of his works, Afolayan will be hosted to a dinner at the Nigerian High Commission in Tokyo. The organizers of the festival aimed at introducing African films by African directors, producers, for cultural exchange between Africa and Japan, have also lined up a chain of activities for Afolayan and these include a short talk on his perspectives on Nigerian film and a series of back to back interviews with major newspapers and the nation’s television stations.

In his reaction to the development, Afolayan said: “It is no doubt another opportunity to showcase and promote African cinemas to the Asian world. It will also afford many people to have a direct experience of cinemas in Africa, made by Africans, understand our stories as told by us. Africa and Africans can no longer allow their stories to be told from Hollywood’s perspectives or other’s eyes. I hope the African and Nigerian communities in Japan would seize this opportunity to enjoy quality film and let’s celebrate a new beginning in African cinema.”

Afolayan thanked the Presidency and the Lagos State Government for providing the necessary logistic support for his participation at the festival. He is also billed to leave Tokyo for Paris to attend the Nollywood Festival in Paris where Phone Swap would also be screened. The Cinema Africa holds May 18-23 and is supported by Japan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs.