By Ahmed Rahma
A Nigerian filmmaker and director, Ms Kemi Adetiba, has tipped the recently released Omo Ghetto (The Saga) produced by a Nollywood actress, Funke Akindele, to break the record set by the Wedding Party Part 1 as the highest-grossing local movie.
Funke Akindele, a filmmaker popularly known as Jenifa, released Omo Ghetto (The Saga) at the cinemas some days ago. The movie star, who is married to a movie producer, Mr Abdulrasheed Bello, otherwise known as JJC Skillz, premiered the flick in Dubai, the United Arabs Emirates (UAE).
The movie has been getting rave reviews from pundits and Ms Adetiba believes the film will surpass the record set by the Wedding Party, produced by ELFIKE Film Collective, a partnership of four major production houses in Nigeria: EbonyLife Films, FilmOne Distribution, Inkblot Productions and Koga Studios.
In the opinion of Ms Adetiba, who directed the Wedding Party, Omo Ghetto (The Saga) has defied the COVID-19 crisis to pave its way through movie lovers.
According to her, she is “gingered” by the success of the Funke Akindele’s just-concluded project in a COVID-19 year.
“[I] Just want to inform y’all that Funke Akindele is about to break the Wedding Party 1 record [that is] if she hasn’t broken it already.
“If you understand how incredible this feat would be in a non-COVID year, then you’ll understand even how more crazy it is in a COVID year. I’m gingered,” she tweeted on Tuesday.
Wedding Party has remained the highest-grossing Nigerian film, a record which was broken in 2017 by its sequel The Wedding Party 2. The romantic comedy was premiered on September 8, 2016, at the Toronto International Film Festival in Canada and on November 26 same year at the Eko Hotel and Suites, Lagos.
Omo Ghetto (The Saga), also known as Omo Ghetto 2, is a 2020 Nigerian gangster comedy film co-directed by Funke Akindele and her husband, JJC Skillz.
This was the second film in the Omo Ghetto franchise and it is also the sequel to the 2010 trilogy film, Omo Ghetto. The film had its theatrical release coinciding with Christmas of 2020 and was opened to extremely positive reviews from critics.
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