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NOLLYWWOOD: The misery behind the glamour

Unknown to many, the life of the average Nollywood actor or actress is nothing more than a projection of what their business is called make believe. It is a life of paradox whereby on the screen they live very large with beautiful homes, exotic cars, well tailored suits and beautifully embroidered native wears. And when they discuss business or contracts, the sums involved always staggering. Most times, they are in billions of dollars.

Their familiar faces naturally endear them to their numerous fans,who struggle to touch the helms of their dresses when they walk on the streets. Most times, they are mobbed by crazy fans who see them as idols after whom they truly wish to model their lives, all because in their esoteric profession, they are accorded roles that depict them as rich and highly influential.

In reality, however, many of the so-called superstar actors and actresses live from hand to mouth and can barely meet their individual needs, not to talk of the needs of their dependants. Many of them are known to have gone public in recent times to beg for money to treat even minor illnesses.

Unlike their counterparts in Hollywood, our screen heroes have not been able to translate their super hero status in movies into their real life conditions, mostly due to no fault of theirs. Popular actor, Ahmed Oduola a.k.a. Dento, died last year after a prolonged battle with stroke. To save his life, Dento, whose face graced many grade A Yoruba movies, needed just N250, 000. For months, Dento and friends went round with cap in hand for donations, which came in trickles and later proved inadequate to keep the veteran actor alive. Before his death, another famous actor, Lekinson, had also died as a result of his inability to meet his medical needs. In his life time, Lekinson was very famous for roles that saw him controlling large business conglomerates. A few months ago, Nigerians woke up to the shock of the rumour that Nollywood actress, Ngozi Nwosu, known as Peace and one of Chief Fuji’s wives in the popular TV drama series, Fuji House of Commotion, was seriously ill. The rumour was confirmed to be true when the once chubby and robust Ngozi appeared in public. In place of the vivacious Ngozi was a frail woman that found it difficult to exchange the least of pleasantry. She later came out to explain that she had kidney and heart-related issues. Her decision to come out, she said, was because of the widespread speculation that she was HIV positive. “I don’t have AIDS ooo,” she declared. But to stay alive, Ngozi needed the sum of N6 million, and it was not a sum that she or anyone close to her could afford. To save her life, friends and colleagues had to go public again. For months, her friends issued different kinds of appeals to the public to help save the life of the versatile actress. It eventually took the intervention of Lagos State Governor, Babatunde Fashola, who gave a lifeline of N5.5 million before Ngozi could be flown to the UK for treatment. Shortly after that sad experience, movie watchers across the country were shocked when news broke that popular actor, Kayode Odumosu, aka Pa Kasumu, was critically ill. But the mood soon changed when another story had it that the veteran actor could not afford to pay his medical bill, said to be in the region of N12 million.
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