Funke Akindele never watched Jenifer’s Diary nor Omo Ghetto- The Saga; this is why

Funke Akindele never watched Jenifer’s Diary nor Omo Ghetto- The Saga; this is why



Late last year, Nigeria’s own Funke Akindele-Bello put out a new movie called Omo Ghetto: The Saga during a time when people weren’t sure a lot of people would be going to the cinemas. Weeks after its release, not only did Omo Ghetto: The Saga do well, it also broke the record as the highest grossing Nollywood movie with a domestic gross of over 600 million naira.



Now in a sit-down interview with star interviewer Chude, Funke Akindele-Bello talks about the success of that movie and gets candid about her reaction to the film’s success and all the fanfare around it. Her response to the question came as quite a shock to people and well, let’s see if her answer surprises you as well. You might just be surprised. Here’s what Funke said about the success of Omo Ghetto: The Saga and how she feels about the movie.

During one of the highlight moments of the 30 minute interview, Chude spoke to Funke about Omo Ghetto: The Saga. He said:

“There is no meeting about film anywhere in Nigeria that I know of and I’ve been in several meetings where people are not talking about Omo Ghetto: The Saga and how it is the gold standard.”

Funke responded to Chude saying:

Okay let me be truthful, you know I’m real. Anything I do, my darling, I don’t see it. I’m just giving you a secret today. I’m a big critic of my work. The wig I wore now, it was something else I wore this morning and I could see a little bit of the lace in front so I told the hairstylist ‘guy, oya remove it remove it’. He said ‘aunty, it’s okay. Your face is fine in it’, I said ‘No! The camera is going to be there, people will zoom in and the lace, they’ll see it.’ I’m a perfectionist. Anything I do I want to do it well.

Now the outcome, I never thought it would be the highest grossing. I did not target highest grossing. No, Abdul and I did not. We just wanted to do a good movie. We wanted to tell a story well. We wanted people to have fun, laugh, enjoy themselves. That’s all I wanted to do. But when the whole accolades came and everybody was like ‘oh you did it, you made it, highest grossing’, and Filmone knows how to do this thing – they’ll segment it: Highest Grossing Movie Producer, Highest Grossing Director, Highest Grossing Actress, kilode? This head dey swell.

But after seeing it, all I do is ‘Thank you Lord’ and I say you need to work harder, don’t push yourself, don’t force it. Just take your time.