Veteran Nollywood actress Keji Yusuf has opened up about the financial and emotional challenges she faced during her first attempt at film production, revealing that she made no profit from the project.
Reflecting on her journey in a recent interview, Yusuf described the experience as a “painful introduction” to the business side of filmmaking.
“I didn’t make money with my first produced movie,” she said. “Back then, there were lots of challenges in movie distribution, so someone advised me to become an independent marketer. I agreed because I felt that selling the film myself would be better.”
However, her plan took a hit after the Nigerian Film and Video Censors Board (NFVCB) introduced a new regulation that disrupted her independent marketing process.
“I had dubbed 10,000 copies of the movie and printed posters and flyers. Then suddenly, they said the Censors Board had come up with another rule which at that time wasn’t favorable to me,” she explained.
In a bid to salvage the project, Yusuf turned to a marketer based in Alakuko, Lagos, who was introduced to her by a fellow actress. They reached an agreement that allowed her to sell the film’s foreign rights before mass distribution began.
Unfortunately, she later discovered that the marketer had breached their agreement by releasing the movie without her consent, and even altered the production credits.
“One day, while watching TV at home, I heard the soundtrack of my movie in an advert,” Yusuf recalled. “The marketer had changed the cover photo, designed another jacket, and even made himself the executive producer. He used my picture very small behind some other actors, on a film I funded completely.”
The actress said the matter was eventually brought to the attention of a senior colleague, who intervened and ensured that the marketer remitted proceeds from the movie’s sales.
Yusuf’s story highlights the enduring struggles of independent filmmakers in Nigeria, particularly around distribution bottlenecks, piracy, and lack of enforcement of intellectual property rights, issues that continue to challenge the growth of Nollywood’s production ecosystem.
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