Junior Pope’s drowning forces Nollywood to look at film safety

The final video that Nigerian actor Junior Pope made for his greater than two million Instagram followers eerily foreshadowed his loss of life.

“You see the dangers, folks, we take to entertain you,” the 42-year-old shouts above the noise of a small motor boat because it speeds alongside the River Niger.

He laughs – it’s not clear whether it is out of pleasure or nervousness – and tells the driving force to decelerate.

“I’m begging the captain, that I’m the one baby and I’ve three boys,” the actor – whose actual title was John Paul Odonwodo – booms as he notices with alarm some water coming into the boat.

The subsequent day the Nollywood star was useless. He drowned in the identical river, after a ship he was travelling in collided with a fishing canoe.

4 others, together with movie crew members, have been additionally killed.

The loss of life in April of one of many largest names in Nigeria’s famend film enterprise – he had greater than 100 movies beneath his belt – despatched the {industry} into shock.

Actors have since been talking out about Nollywood’s poor security file and calling for change.

Nollywood is the third largest movie {industry} on the earth – after Hollywood and India’s Bollywood.

It produces greater than 2,500 movies a 12 months: some are by massive, established manufacturing homes, however there are dozens of smaller corporations using on the coat-tails of 1 the nation’s big success tales.

After the deadly accident, the Actors Guild of Nigeria instantly responded, saying that each one filming in and round rivers could be suspended indefinitely.

It then known as for security requirements to be applied and noticed.

A preliminary report into the capsizing from the Nigerian Security Investigations Bureau launched final month discovered a number of failings:

• the driving force was not licensed to function the boat
• the boat was not registered
• just one particular person was sporting a life jacket
• that passenger, one among eight survivors, had introduced the life jacket on board themselves.

In a now-deleted Instagram video posted quickly after the incident, the movie’s producer, Adanma Luke, mentioned she had been instructed there have been life jackets and Junior Pope was supplied one however didn’t take it.

“I’ve been so traumatised. I’ve been so chilly. This entire factor nonetheless appears like a dream to me. I want I may nonetheless get up from this dream,” she mentioned within the video.

She later wrote: “My coronary heart is shattered in items as I write this… I discover myself praying, how can we flip again the fingers of time?”

Ruth Kadiri, a prime actor, producer and screenwriter who knew Junior Pope nicely, says he tended to be completely satisfied and “extraordinarily hyper”.

“He all the time introduced within the constructive power… and I feel he was actually liked by all,” she instructed the BBC’s What within the World podcast about her pal.

She went on to say that incidents just like the one which killed Junior Pope are far too widespread in Nollywood.

Kadiri remembers an incident when she nearly drowned throughout filming – making her take into consideration the concern the actor “should have felt on the final minute of his life”.

“I needed to shoot a film so we couldn’t use life jackets,” she says.

“I requested the workforce if the whole lot was OK and so they mentioned the canoe was tremendous. So I obtained on the boat, they began to paddle, and the canoe simply tumbled into the river.”

She was saved by a colleague who grabbed her within the water.

The star, who has greater than six million Instagram followers, is now calling for change.

Nevertheless, she says she understands the temptation for actors who need to get on to do one thing that’s doubtlessly unsafe.

“All of us do loopy issues for the love of this job. We do issues we usually wouldn’t do.

“As you develop, you be taught to place your wants first. Not since you don’t just like the manufacturing, however as a result of if one thing goes mistaken, that’s the top of it.”

Kadiri says that security is an industry-wide concern however whereas the larger, well-funded productions can take measures, many smaller operations are unable to afford the additional prices.

In an effort to enhance issues, she suggests {that a} security regulatory physique must be established that may have folks on movie units.

“The director is considering creating the content material, the actor is considering getting in character, so allow us to create an additional physique. It would save a number of stress.”

Actor Chidi Dike says Junior Pope’s loss of life was “an awakening to all”.

He agrees that “security hasn’t been taken very critically”, however notes that there have been some enhancements.

He has seen that administrators and producers at the moment are attempting to ensure filming doesn’t go late into the night time, which prior to now has meant harmful night-time journeys house.

“The whole lot is dangerous… driving very quick. There was one time I used to be coming house actually late and I nearly obtained into an accident,” he instructed the BBC.

“However it’s higher now.”

It’s an surprising legacy for the bubbling actor with an enormous catalogue of movies, however Junior Pope’s ultimate video might nicely flip Nollywood right into a safer place to work.

Further reporting by Emily Horler, Alex Rhodes and Chimezie UcheAgbo.

What in the World is a each day podcast from the BBC World Service that helps you make sense of what’s occurring on the earth, offered by Hannah Gelbart.