According to veteran actor Dele Odule, many early Nollywood performers, including himself, lost the chance to fully monetize their abilities at the height of their careers because they lacked business savvy. The esteemed actor, in a recent interview, attributed the difficulty to a widespread failure on the part of Yoruba filmmakers who, at the time, valued celebrity above planned financial gain.
“Not involving the business into our craft affected all of us, including myself,” Dele Odule stated. “When Toluwani was released, I was among the few who enjoyed stardom. I’m supposed to be very rich because, as at that period, I was being paid more than anyone in the industry after the movie came out.”
Odule pointed out that his youth and linguistic advantage should have put him in a better position to earn more money. “The charges I was supposed to make were meant to be much more because I had the opportunity of being able to speak some English, which wasn’t really common in our Yoruba movie industry back then and I was also very young at the time,”
He went on to say that even though he didn’t have a college degree at the time, people thought he was very intelligent.
“Even then, I didn’t have a university certificate, but I was seen as one who had,” he continued. “Years later when I went back to school, two of my children met me in school, but I graduated before them.”
