Media mogul Mo Abudu has declared that the energetic dance promotions favoured by some of her peers are not part of her strategy.
Speaking at the Lagos Business of Film Summit, Abudu expressed admiration for colleagues like Funke Akindele and Toyin Abraham, whose viral dance routines help drive their films to box office success.
The CEO of EbonyLife Media, however, admitted that dancing to promote her films is not her forte.
Abudu used the moment to highlight the need for the industry to understand the diverse and evolving requirements for cinematic success in Nigeria, suggesting that her strengths lie elsewhere.
“I look at people, Funke and Toyin, and I’m like, I don’t know where they get the energy to do all of this,” Abudu said.
“I have told my team, me I can’t dance. So go and look for someone who will do the dancing because it is not going to be me.”
“We have to understand what it requires now for there to be a box office success in Nigeria.”
The summit also saw director Kunle Afolayan make similar remarks, saying he’ll never dance and do skits to promote films.
His remark was, however, met with backlash from Akindele and segments of the online community and industry observers.
Critics interpreted his comment as dismissive of the highly effective, albeit different, model of production and promotion mastered by filmmakers like Akindele, whose record-breaking successes have redefined commercial benchmarks.
Akindele responded publicly, asserting that creators can and should develop their own promotional models and that “the sky was big enough for everyone to fly”.
