Renowned Nollywood actress and producer Ruth Kadiri shared her motivation for uploading her films on YouTube in an interview with BBC Pidgin.
She explained that she turned to YouTube to have a platform where she could freely express herself and tell her stories without being restricted by the numerous rules and regulations of film production in Nigeria.
“I have been a producer for a long time but there are too many rules and regulations during production,” she said.
“So I called my team and told them that I wanted an opportunity to express myself. For instance, if I see something online I want to learn it and after learning, I want to upload it somewhere.
“When I traveled to give birth, I was bored and started watching a lot of musical videos and noticed that some people put their films on YouTube.
“I told myself that I’ll come back to try it. Some people discouraged me and told me that there was no money in it. But because I needed a platform to express myself and tell my stories, I decided to try it.
“I told my team that we should shoot and if the film is not good enough, we will learn and use it as a learning process.
Speaking on the competition in the YouTube space, Kadiri noted;
“Personally I don’t worry about competition and I feel like as filmmakers, we are at the forefront and we hustle.
“If you remove YouTube from the industry, apart from filmmakers and content creators, people will go hungry.
“YouTube is an opportunity for a lot of filmmakers to make money and that’s what is happening now. Because YouTube is what is feeding people now.”
Despite her busy career, Ms. Kadiri said she doesn’t let her work affect her family, as she has a way of organizing everything so that work doesn’t interfere with family time.
According to her, above all, she has an understanding spouse, and they both understand each other very well.
