How I cope with acting, my wives and numerous children - Jide Kosoko

The name Jide Kosoko is a household name in the movie industry. Jide Kosoko came to prominence through television as a member of Awada kerikeri theater group, which had a successful series on television. He also produces and directs films.

What he has going for him is that he has successfully made a cross over doing both English and Yoruba films,

Currently, he is the president of Association of Nigeria Theater Practitioners (ANTP) and speaks on the challenges faced by the industry and his suggestions on how to combat these challenges.  He also made a clarion call to the government and individuals to come to the aid of this industry in terms of finance, quality control and distribution.

He also speaks on how he joggles between his family of wives and children and his tasking career as an actor and the president of ANTP.
Enjoy;

How are you finding your office as president of the Association of Nigerian Theater Practitioners (ANTP)?

So far so good.  It’s been tedious but I’m coping.  As you are very much aware ANTP is the foremost acting association in the country .

Also, the kind of membership we have consist of people with different educational backgrounds.  We have people who are exposed and those who are not.

So, the task is to ensure that they are updated with the present  situation of what is going on in the industry and get them prepared for the next level.

Like I said during my campaign, I am determined to prepare my members for both national and international challenges which is what we are doing now.  We are trying to upgrade them in terms of capacity building and on these we are coping.

In terms of capacity building, what strategies have you employed to put things right?

During my hundred days in office, we had a lot of workshops on various aspects of our industry ranging from directing to lighting and camera works where a lot of them have benefitted from what they were taught.

Apart from that, we have had series of workshops from various local governments of the association to upgrade our people.  We’ve also been encouraging our members to attend festivals within and outside the country which they have been doing.

What do you think can be done on the issue of illiteracy in the movie industry?

May be because our medium of work is the Yoruba language, some people think that the Yoruba actors don’t understand English, we have quite a lot of well read actors among us.

Although, I will not hesitate to say the fact that we also have some that don’t have the western education as such but they are literate on their jobs.

They know what they’re doing, they know the rudiments of film making and acting, so they are two different things.

When you talk about the academic qualification, you also talk about professional literacy which they have.  Academic qualification is  secondary when it comes to film making because film making is all about experience. it is your involvement  and practical participation that matters most and not academic qualification. 

How would you compare the entertainment industry back then to what is obtainable now?

A lot of changes have occurred but I find it difficult to tell if it is for good or for bad.  I hate celebrating what is not celeberatable.

It will be wrong for us to start celebrating old rhythms when we actually started from somewhere else.

Agreed, we are every where now, making noise here and there that we are Nollywood, but the truth is that we still have a long way to go.  I doubt if there are people seriously thinking about producing a film that will be acceptable internationally.

Up till now, Celluloid film still remains the ultimate and the most acceptable format of making movies all over the world which we are not seriously looking into and that is not helping us at all.

What do you think is responsible for that?

It is very expensive and the market is not there yet.  Our marketers are not doing enough to expand the scope of distribution and it is really affecting productivity and the quality of production. Accepted that the quality of production is supposed to determine the wideness of distribution but unfortunately the reverse is the case.

You have to look at what the market is saying first before you produce.  But on this, we are gradually changing. We now have more avenue where we can actually sell our films other than just putting them straight on home videos.

I want to personally encourage our people on Dosumu (the marketers) that there is now need to do productions that we can actually take to Cinemas across the country.

Also that they should attend international festivals and other competitions, by so doing, we will have enough avenues where we can sell our films.

I can only advise my colleagues to look less at the present marketing structure which is not good enough for us at all. I am yet to see a single marketer or major distributor that is doing enough, you hardly see people selling up to a hundred thousand copies of films and Nigeria population is over hundred million people, this is a very serious problem for us.

What do you think is responsible for that, is it piracy?

Yes piracy is one of the major factor for that situation, you can’t rule that out.  It is not as if our copyright Commission is not doing their best but, I strongly want to recommend a stronger penalty for violators.

If a stronger penalty can be enacted in the Copyright acts, it will reduce piracy. You can imagine somebody who have made millions from a back deal on someone else’s works, is now being asked to pay a penalty fee of only ten thousand naira and perhaps confiscate some of his properties which in  most cases does not happen.

Nigerians need a stronger penalty.  I know Nigerians will always run away from imprisonment without option of fine. If they make the penalty stronger, I believe it will reduce piracy to its barest minimum because piracy may not be eradicated.  Another big challenge is fund.  The distributors don’t have enough fund to mass produce and distribute at once. 

This will also guide against piracy.  For instance, if there is a production now and  you just printed about fifty thousand copies  the first set of people to purchase from you are the pirates, but if you produce as much say, five hundred thousand copies and you have where to distribute, let them be the first set of people to buy, before they know it, the production is everywhere , so there will be no where for them to take the pirated copies to.

So, we all have serious work to do in that direction.  I just hope that very soon, some more serious distributors will come up.  Really some distributors are that we have now are desirous of making something good but unfortunately, the environment or their constituency is not enabling enough.

If it is the issue of association that is giving us problem, may be we should just forget about the associations and let individuals who are interested go ahead and do something good.  There is need for us to  speak with one voice.

All these proliferation of association will never help the industry.  We need to come together and ensure that we have a common voice that will tackle most of our problems.

Unfortunately too, some of us are so greedy in the sense that they are only interested in what they are making for themselves now that they don’t think of how we can actually expand the industry and if they are saying  so, they are not acting accordingly.

I don’t want to start mentioning names, but I know of those who are only interested in what they want to make.  If that is the way we started or have been doing it, perherps I would have been more than rich by now.

If you have a chance to change something in the industry now, what will it be? 

There  are quite a lot, not just one.  Firstly, I will look at the distribution area.  I will enact a more severe punishment for piracy and I will also talk of quality control because the two go together.

We are not there yet.  we are called the largest producers of films,  this is so only in quantity and not quality.

The quality of our productions is still not good enough.  It is unfortunate because, it is not as if we do not have professionals but we are still in rush to have productions.

We don’t have enough that will cater for a production that will be good enough for that standard and quality that I am talking about.

We also have a government that will continue to show their interest only in the way they talk and not in their actions.

We have had seminars and workshops but there are some beautiful programes that ought to have been executed but these are programes that can only be facilitated by the government such as the motion picture council and the film fund.

The film fund foundation will be there to feed members of the council and fund their productions.  By so doing, they will not need to rush anything and everything will be by merit and we’ll keep on ensuring that there is fund there.

How will the fund be sourced?

The fund will come from the government, big organizations and interested individuals.  Before you know it, I can assure you that our industry will be producing enough to help the country, but who is going to bail the cat?

It is always easier said than done.  Most of the time, you see them on the television and talk on the newspapers, “yes Nollywood has come to stay” that is not just enough, we have to practicalize it.

Being a family man with wives and children, how do you joggle between your tasking career and the home front?

What is family?  Will the family exist when there is no job, forget it.  I joggle it because I work hard to ensure that I get enough to take care of the family.

You women like to talk about family, family.  You work to make  money and when you make money, you take good care of your family.

Though money is not everything  so I have the time I spend with my wives and time to discuss the problems of the family but what matters most is my contribution to the industry , my country and to myself, so that I can keep body and soul together

By Fred Iwenjora