Kunle Afod, a Nollywood actor and filmmaker, has disclosed that he was prohibited from participating in specific productions once he started making money from his films online.
The veteran Yoruba actor shared that his decision to embrace digital distribution and bypass traditional marketers led to his exclusion from industry networks that had previously supported his career.
Speaking in an interview on Oyinmomo TV, Afod explained that his shift to online movie distribution was born out of the need to adapt to the rapidly changing media landscape.
As the entertainment industry transitioned from CDs to DVDs and eventually to digital platforms, he said he recognized early on that online streaming would redefine how audiences consumed movies.
According to him, he tried to advise marketers to evolve with the times, but his warnings went unheeded. Afod said he took the bold step of launching his own online channel where he uploaded and monetized his films directly.
His success with this approach reportedly unsettled some marketers, who then moved to blacklist him from their productions. Producers were allegedly instructed not to feature him in their projects, effectively sidelining him from mainstream Yoruba Nollywood circles.
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Despite the backlash, Afod noted that the online platform gave him financial independence and creative freedom. As the popularity of digital content surged, other actors began to follow suit, recognizing the benefits of controlling their own distribution channels.
He said the same stakeholders who once resisted the change later attempted to reconcile, but by that time, he had already built a sustainable model for himself.
He said: “As the world evolved digitally, we also had to adapt and improve our involvement. There was a time when we used CDs, and later we upgraded to DVDs. We, the actors, advised marketers to make the switch to DVDs too, because that was what the audience had moved on to at the time. Later, when online streaming platforms emerged, I personally warned the marketers that physical discs could soon go extinct due to these platforms. Unfortunately, they didn’t listen to me.”
“Since they ignored my advice, I created my own online channel and started uploading my movies directly. When they realized I was earning revenue independently without going through marketers, they banned me from acting in their productions and instructed producers not to feature me in their films. Thank God the online streaming space grew rapidly. When they saw how fast my platform was growing, many other actors joined in. I was later invited to a meeting to discuss how to remedy the situation, but I told them I had already moved on. Now that people understand they can distribute their own films online and earn directly, everything has changed,” he added.
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