Actor and singer Gabriel Afolayan has spoken about his creative relationship with his brother, filmmaker Kunle Afolayan, saying their shared upbringing helped shape their work in Nollywood.
In an interview on Channels Television, Gabriel recalled childhood memories of watching films together, which he said created a lasting bond that now influences their collaborations, including the film and series Anikulapo.
“I can remember when we were much younger; he’s going to put me on his shoulder, we go and watch films together. So we’ve already had that filmic bond while growing up. And also, it translated pretty much well,” he said.
“We love quality stuff, fundamentally. And we love ourselves, even though when we argue, it’s for a certain cause that’s going to set things right. So it was pretty easy to work with him. I think we got that niche from our dad, always wanting to do things right,” he added.
Gabriel described Anikulapo as a large-scale production that requires attention to storytelling, technical detail and character development.
“For a big-scale project like Anikulapo, you can’t be any better. The project itself calls for exactly what it gets at the moment, building set from scratch, having professional cinematographers, good technical people on grading, costumes, art design… everything has to be grand,” he said.
Explaining the shift from film to series, he said, “Because it’s a series now, it needs to extend, that’s the fundamental… You can’t journey through a singular plot.
“The stuff itself is called Anikulapo. Anikulapo is a title, it’s not a name. The next Anikulapo might be a much younger person. The protagonists are going to evolve. So it’s not going to be solely rested on a particular character.
“Like, I said, it’s a title, Anikulapo, meaning the one with death in his pouch. Anybody who is able to bring people back to life or return from the dead can be Anikulapo. So it keeps going,” he said.
He also pointed to funding as a major challenge in the Nigerian film industry, noting that limited budgets can affect execution despite strong ideas.
“The standard is here. The only thing now is the personality around those standards. Sometimes you can have a very good script, but because of budget, the expression, the storytelling will turn another way around.… People create good things, great stuff, good stories. But when it comes to execution, everything is still about the budget input,” he said.
“It’s the story. I’m a big fan of good stories, good writing, layered characters… It motivates me a lot. Filmmaking is still personal. What is your reason? Why are you in this field? Even though there are general rules, your own values influence the work… you wouldn’t want to disgrace yourself in front of the audience,” the actor concluded.
The Afolayan brothers are part of a filmmaking family led by the late actor and filmmaker Ade Love, whose influence continues to shape their approach to storytelling and film production in Nollywood.
