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Nigerian comedian, actor and filmmaker Bright Okpocha, popularly known as Basketmouth, has narrated how popular Nollywood actress cum film making, Funke Akindele stopped picking his calls while creating his first major cinema project, ‘A Ghetto Love Story’.
Basketmouth spoke about the experience during a recent interview with Arise TV, where he opened up about the struggles he faced whilst delving into the details of his filmmaking journey.
According to the veteran comedian, Funke Akindele was his initial choice, he further recounted their first conversation in August, which he said was filled with excitement and promise.
He stated that what followed was a series of unreturned calls, unanswered texts, leading to a long silence.
He averred that the actress might have been caught up in her own film work or simply unavailable due to other commitments.
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Following the setback, he decided to reach out to another film maker, Mo Abudu and she responded with enthusiasm and immediately embraced his vision, stepping in to fill the gap and help bring ‘A Ghetto Love Story’ to life.
He said: “With collaborations with filmmakers, it was dramatic. When I started calling all these like Mo Abudu and the rest of them, you know, I had a plan. I was going to start with Funke Akindele, and just run it all through.
“But when I called Funke, she was excited and that was in August, and then the next thing, she never picked up my calls again. But she was making a movie, maybe she was busy, or her phone is on silent, or maybe the phone got spoilt. But yeah, I hope she pick up or responds to my messages”.
“I’ve sent over like 25 messages or whatever, but she didn’t respond. So I had to change the whole plan and re-strategize. I had to go to Mo, this and that, but the rest of them came through.
“I called Mo and normally she doesn’t do stuff like that, but she jumped on it. Sooner or later, I believe that filmmakers in Nigeria will get to understand that collaboration is the new competition”.
