Omotola: Nollywood can compete with Hollywood

In an interview with Fidelis Mbah of BBC to promote her new film Amina, Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde responded positively to the question: "Nollywood movies have over the years received knocks for low quality and poor scripts. Has anything changed lately?"

"Oh absolutely. If you watch most movies out of Nollywood in the past three, four years—perhaps in 2006, consistently—most of the big-budget movies are what they are: big-budget movies. They can compete with any other movie from anywhere else around the world—even Hollywood."

Later, Mbah said: "Judging by international recognition and awards, Nollywood film industry doesn't seem to be doing so well, despite the number of movies produced almost on daily basis."

"Really? You think we're not doing very well? It's 'supposedly' the third largest movie industry in the world," replied Omotola, raising her fingers to denote quotes for the word "supposedly."

"And we're barely just 16 years old," she continued. "I think that's very well—extremely well, actually."

However, the 34-year-old actress, who had her breakthrough with 1995′s Moral Inheritance, recognizes that Nollywood is not "perfect," placing its limitations on its foundation in a "Third World country" that is "still growing."

"We're doing the best we humanly can, and I think we have grown tremendously," said Omotola, citing Amina as an example.

Amina, a joint Nigerian-British production directed by Christian Ashiaku, is a psychological human drama. Omotola stars as the titular character: a young woman who suffers a mental breakdown due to a series of unfortunate events. The world premiere took place on Wednesday, Oct. 17 at London's Empire Cinemas in Leicester Square.