Filmmaker Lily Perez has responded to colleague Chinneylove after the latter dismissed allegations of plagiarism involving Perez’s film A Kristmas to Love.
The disagreement began after fans drew attention to similarities between Perez’s movie and another Christmas themed romance linked to Chinneylove. Perez accused her colleague of copying key elements such as the storyline, lead character’s name and specific scenes.
On Friday, Perez shared screenshots and images on Instagram to support her claim of authorship and to show her production timeline. In the post, she wrote:
“Slide 1- The last day of shoot (see date)
“Slide 2 – When I commenced writing and I was prompted to take a screen shot (see date). As I stated in my previous post, full scripts and drafts are in my scriptwriting software. I repeat WRITTEN BY ME, LILY PEREZ.
“Slide 3 – Copies of the novel written by ME, it has even more beautiful scenes we couldn’t shoot due to budget and time constraints. Let me know if you need a copy.
“Slides 4 and 5 – When I sent scripts to lead cast.
Slide 6- When I sent script to director.
Slides 7,8,9 – Lead cast received copies of the novel written by ME
Slide 10 – The excitement of bringing my script to life (first day of shoot).”
In an earlier post, Perez stated:
“I, LILY PEREZ wrote A Kristmas to Love from scratch, no ghostwriter and no assistance. A Nigerian Christmas feel-good romance story void of vulgarity. It was shot in October 2025, the first set of crew received copies of the script in August 2025, most definitely not a week or few days to the shoot. Do with this information what you will . Happy new year again, it’s going to be a great one .”
Chinneylove has denied the allegations, insisting her film was entirely original. She said she conceived and wrote the story herself and had never seen A Kristmas to Love before making her movie. She added that although an actor mentioned similarities on the first day of filming, she believed it was a typical romantic comedy overlap and proceeded with production.
The dispute has continued to generate reactions online, with both filmmakers standing by their accounts as discussions on originality and creative ownership in Nollywood persist.
