Three times more, really. Apparently he’s gotten a deal with MNet Africa to shoot 3 TV movies. Or at least they were originally meant to be TV movies, but he’s secured permission to take them to cinemas as well as release them on DVD.
The first of the lot, ‘Roti’ is already in production, and, if pictures on Afolayan’s Instagram are anything to go by, stars the man himself alongside Kate Henshaw.
Cinematography is being handled by regular Afolayan collaborator, Yinka Edward.
Titles for the other movies, as well as summaries for each, have also been released.
In ‘Roti’ which stars Kunle Afolayan himself playing alongside Kate Henshaw, Toyin Oshinaike, Fathia Balogun and Dari Afolayan, the story is told of how, years after a couple loses their son called Roti to a brief illness, the wife sees a boy called Juwon who is an exact replica of her dead son. After discovering that Juwon is not a reincarnation of Roti, she is washed anew by grief and soon descends into depression and consequent hysteria.
In ‘Tribunal’, “Jimi Disu, a man in his fifties, is one of the bright- minded lawyers who co-establish a leading law firm in Lagos many years ago. However, he lost his sense of direction and strength after being hit by a series of personal challenges that question his resolve as a man. He becomes a ‘charge and bail’ lawyer with no further ambition. Approached by a young, enthusiastic, fresh law school graduate, Tanimowo (who adores him for the stature of his legendary pedigree as a lawyer), to defend her friend, an albino, who has been unfairly relieved of his duties at work, Jimi Disu is presented a chance to battle his old law firm. ‘Tribunal’ stars Omotola Jalade-Ekehinde, Funsho Adeolu, Nobert Young, Ade Laoye, and Damilola Ogunsi.
The third flick which stars Ayo Adesanya, Yaw, Gloria Anozie Young and Omowunmi Dada is ‘Omugwo’, the story of Omotunde, a young Yoruba civil engineer, married to Raymond, an Igbo man. Coloured by different cultural backgrounds, drama ensues when Raymond’s mother, Chimanda, insists on performing Omugwo, an Igbo cultural practice by which the mother of one of the couples lives with the couple for a period of time to relieve the nursing mother of the pressures of convalescing and baby care.
Omotunde’s mother, an egotistic, self-absorbed woman feels she has the right, as Chimamanda, to be there for her daughter and granddaughter and receive as much praise as Chimamanda. Both mothers-in-law move in with the couple and complicate their lives even further in this comic-filled drama.
That’s a heavy roster of talent on all fronts, so despite our disappointment in Afolayan’s last film, The CEO, we can’t say we’re not excited here. Hopefully these films are a return to creative form for the filmmaker.
I am so waiting of these movies. Especially ‘Tribunal’ cos it stars Nollywood herself, Omosexy