It’s no more news that many movie stars, most especially the veterans, don’t make money from the movie industry. Fans believe these stars are rich and famous but in reality, that is far from the truth. Majority of them presently feed from hand to the mouth. It is even more surprising that it is not just the veterans going through this but also the younger ones, but majority of them display fake lives on social media, while the ladies depend on rich men in the society to take care of their bills and celebrity lifestyle.
In the last two weeks, many veterans have been taking turns on social media to solicit for funds, while a good number are battling with life threatening ailments without help from anywhere.
It all started with veteran actress Adenike Adegboye a.k.a. Iya Ibeji, when star actress, Foluke Daramola pleaded with fans to offer her financial support. It is something she has been doing to assist the veterans in the industry, and through her foundation a good number of veterans have gotten help.
The actress revealed that the veteran actress has been down health wise and urged people to contribute money for her. Fans came to her rescue, as they contributed money, and she even got a house gift from a Pastor.
Just few weeks ago, veteran actress, Margaret Bandele Olayinka a.k.a. Iya Gbonke also cried out on social media, on how she has been acting for so many years without a car, and a U.K based movie promoter Alexes gifted her a car.
After her, some other veterans such as Alapinni, Lalude, Pariolodo, Dayo Adewunmi have also come up on social media to solicit for funds. And while many feel sorry for their predicament some others have also frowned at their begging for financial assistance publicly. It got so bad that the TAMPAN National President, Mr. Latin was called out on social media over the saddening situation that needs urgent solution. According to Mr Latin “we always come to the aid of all active members, since I became the TAMPAN President, we have spent more than 10 million on our actors’ health challenges. The ones you see going on radio or television to beg for money are not active members of the association”.
This brings us to the main reasons these veterans are suffering in silence. They dominated our screens in the 80’s and 90’s, and made our childhood memorable with their outstanding role interpretations both on stage plays and movies.
First and foremost, majority of these veterans belong to ANTP and not TAMPAN. ANTP was the first association the Yoruba movie stars belonged to before the disagreement came up in the association, and some selected elders in collaboration, with the new wave making stars formed the new group TAMPAN, which happens to be the most accepted association in the industry. All the wave making actors and new generation movie stars belong to TAMPAN. They produce movies back-to-back, they dine and wine with the people at the helms of affair in politics and society and this has given them upper hand against any other association. Due to this, majority of the veterans in ANTP are neglected and not featured in movies.
They are not featured in recent movies and still living on their past glory. Let’s not forget that even in the 80’s and 90’s that they were dominating the scene, they were paid little or nothing, which they can barely survive on. It won’t be wrong to say their lives have been practically put on hold right now. Yes, they have a career they have strong passion for, but they don’t have the finance to produce movies and the people currently producing movies are not featuring them in their different movies. They remain stagnant with their careers, while different problems like feeding, health issues keep coming up.
Secondly some veteran actors who are also part of TAMPAN have rebranded to meet up with the current trending issues, such as being active on social media, featuring in skits or short plays to keep being relevant and also get endorsement deals.
Some even open a personal page on social media, where they upload their old movies and current short movies on different platforms and YouTube. But these ANTP veteran stars remain in one place, waiting for manner to fall down from heaven.
This totally cuts them off, and it takes the grace of God for many to remember their works and still appreciate them. And once they are not relevant on social media, endorsement deals and ambassadorial deals can’t come, because brands want celebrities with lots of followers and social media presence.
Also gone are the days when people will buy CDs to watch a particular movie for 3 hours. There are too many things going on these days that many don’t have luxury of time to watch movies for hours anymore. Once they watch skits on social media, it already made their days. Then people that are still crazy about movies, now go to cinemas to watch blockbuster movies.
No finances to handle big time project so they just remain in the background. It takes lots of hard work and persistence to remain relevant in the movie industry for 3 decades and above, because new talents keep springing up everyday, and fans want something new and fresh. So if you are a veteran and you have been in the industry for decades and people are still crazy about you, it simply means you are doing so many things right, and you have been doing a lot of upgrading to meet up with the trends. This also attracts brands and companies to you, thereby making huge money from endorsement deals as well, without all these, and no other means of income, poverty and depression will definitely come up and also thereby inviting other sickness as well, due to excess thinking.
Lets not forget, that most of these veterans are groomed in stage plays and epic movies and lately it takes extra work for people to leave the comfort of their homes for epic movies, and many are also not interested in the epic movies of the 80’s and 90’s anymore, they want something new and more contemporary.
Many prefer romance movies and comedy to epic movies lately, and this particular point explains why many filmmakers are rebranding the 90’s movies, so people can watch again. Some of these veterans don’t even want anyone managing them so how will they even rebrand, talk more of upgrading their skills.
All these and more have affected these stars and due to this, they have been dying in silence.
The fear and shame of even coming out to beg is another issue. Many feel, a lot of people look up to them in the society, so how will they face same people and open up that they can not even eat or are nursing an ailment.
In all these, one question keeps popping up, why are the rich ones amongst them not helping the poor ones?
How many of them are truly rich? Just very few, and these few can’t cater for all the needy ones because they have personal issues and family to take care of too.
Eighty percent of the rich Yoruba stars are actually poor and faking the rich lifestyle due to their fame and they also depend on some big names in the society to take care of their bills. They feature in movies just to maintain the fame, and this also explains why majority of them have other side hustles to keep body and soul together. They throw out pictures of what fans want to see on social media but in actual fact, they are truly suffering in silence.
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