Actor Fash Lanso: We don’t want government in entertainment business
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After spending so many years in the Nigerian movie industry doing what he knows how to do best which is acting, Yomi Fash-Lanso has decided to take a break to lay his hands on another thing. In this interview, he talks about his other business apart from acting and shares his thoughts on Nollywood. What do you have to say about Christmas? I don’t do Christmas; to me every day is the same day.
What will I do for my children that I have not done for them before? Where will I take them to that they have not been to before? What will I eat that day that I have not eaten before? If you want to make yourself happy, do and ask for God’s blessings. What have you been up to recently? A lot ; we have been honouring and celebrating our African veterans and icons in the industry via Afro Heritage Broadcasting and Entertainment Award which comes up every year in Texas. And what we do with that platform is to honour and celebrate those who have spent over 20 years and above in the industry.
So, it’s not by nomination or vote. It is all over Africa, not in Nigeria alone. •Yomi Fash lanso In the last edition, we honoured the likes of Pete Edochie, Liz Benson, Kunle Afolayan, Sadiq Daba, Bimbo Emmanuel, Bimbo Osin, Ayo Adesoyan, among others. We have two categories: Icons and Legends. The Legends are people that have spent 30 years and above, while the Icons are those who have spent 20 years and above. We also have people from other African countries like, Ghana and South Africa. We also honoured the late ones in our industry. One of them was Jennifer Osai of Glamour Girls fame.
We do 15 categories each every year. How would you assess the Nigerian movie industry in 2016? We are getting better. Of course, we have been very good before the advent of home video. In the early 70s, at least the first commercially successful film was done by Ola Balogun, titled Ajayi Ogun which featured the late Afolayan Adele Love, as the lead character. He was doing travelling theatre and work as at that time. Then Ola Balogun came back from abroad and saw this man, Afolayan, with a fine figure as an actor that can deliver and he sought for his services and the film was a bomb. The film was like an eye-opener for the late Afolayan to do his own film in 1978, which was the Ija Ominira ( Fight for freedom), then followed by the one he did in 1980 titled, Kadara,Taxi Driver among others.
So we have been very successful before the advent of home video. Home video set the whole marauding that we are finding it hard to cope with. But thanks to digital because we are trying to find our feet back to the system and we will surely get there. What are the things you feel should be corrected in Nollywood? I am sorry, if you say Nollywood, I am one of the guys that do not subscribe to that. What is Nollywood, where is Nollywood in Nigeria? There is no Nollywood. In America, Hollywood is a place; it is a community that you have studios and all that, it is not the name of an association.
They have a Motion Picture Association of America, MPAA. Hollywood is a place, not an association. If you are going to America and you tell any person that you want to go to Hollywood, they will direct you. But if you are coming to Nigeria and tell anyone you want to go to Nollywood, where is Nollywood? So, to me, Nollywood is a fallacy. We need to retrace our steps and get everything right. How would you describe the old administration of AGN, Lagos chapter? To me, the transition is a very good thing. I belong to TAMPAN, which stands for, Theatre Arts and Motion Picture Association of Nigerian, not AGN. And that is the largest practitioners association we have in Nigeria.
AGN is a guild not an association. Nevertheless, AGN is a very good thing, what they need to do is to make sure that everything is put in place so we have the ethos of the guild put in place, it is very important. What we have now is that everybody is hustling to make the ends meet. That is why the politicians can use us and do a lot of things. And that is why some will go and campaign for politicians under the umbrella of the association and it’s very wrong. I pray they get it right and we move forward. What do you think of this MOBICON bill? It is not going to work. When you do not carry the stakeholders along in what you have decided, things will not work out.
Entertainment is a private sector business anywhere in the world and not a government thing. In America, I think in 1954, the government was complaining that what was obtained in the industry was not what they wanted. They said that they wanted to come and correct it but the people said no, tell us what we are doing wrong, don’t come into our industry we would go and amend. And they did that. Now, what they have in America is a classifying board which we don’t have here and it is wrong. They classify movies according to age and that is what we need here in Nigeria. No matter the quality of the members in the committee, it is still not going to work. From the on-set they have taken the wrong step. I do not want government to come into our industry, just create enabling environment for us to do out thing. By enabling environment, I mean they should make electricity available to us. Let’s have good infrastructure. Give us community cinema, you create job opportunities, they will also earn from there because we will pay. But when it comes to private sector, we are having problem there because it is Shylock business. But when you create enabling environment, you are helping us to do things well. I am against sponsoring practitioners to go and learn acting or directing, it doesn’t make sense.
Are you funding the mechanic too? It’s just political, that is why some of us do not buy the idea. Tell us about your work, movie producing, directing and so on? For now, I have taken a break. I am more into the award thing because I am coordinating it. Trying to get in touch with artistes and logistics takes a lot of my time. So for now, I have really taken a break from acting. This year we will soon start working on edition of the award, Afro Heritage Broadcasting Entertainment Award.
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