Veteran actor Mustapha “Baba Otolo” Bakare has disclosed who the current highest-paid actor in the Nigerian movie industry is.
Baba Otolo, the producer of “Adigun Danger”, “Danfo Driver”, and “O Dayan Mo”, made the revelation in a viral video on Friday, which was extracted from his interview on Drive TV, posted on the YouTube page on 26 October.
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Speaking about the top-earning actor, Baba Otolo, who began his acting career in the 1990s and featured in “Aropinteniyan”, directed by the legendary theatre pioneer Sir Hubert Ogunde, said: “If Ibrahim Chatta takes on a movie project, he earns N5 million per location, making him the highest-paid actor in the industry at the moment. No one currently earns more than he does.
“What’s even more impressive is that he doesn’t take just one job a month; sometimes, he works on twenty projects in a month. These days, however, Ibrahim Chatta hardly accepts new movie roles unless it’s for a close friend. When I invited him to feature in my film “Jigi”, we shot in Ogbomosho, and he not only starred in it but also helped promote it. The movie will be released soon.”
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Chatta’s film village
Baba Otolo revealed that the 55-year-old actor earned five times more from his film village than he did from acting.
He noted that Chatta’s film village, known as Africhatta, is located in Balogun Village, off Odo Aro in Oyo Town, Oyo State.
Baba Otolo added that the films produced in the village are made with budgets running into millions of naira.
“Now, consider this: Chatta has built his own film village, which means he rarely leaves for outside productions anymore. If you want him to feature in your movie, you’ll have to shoot it at his facility, and that doesn’t come cheap. He charges N29 million to rent his film village, and there’s no room for negotiation. The place is used for cinema-standard productions, not low-budget videos, because smaller producers can’t afford such fees after paying cast and crew.
“Still, people patronise him; filmmakers from Lagos and beyond shoot there. He invested heavily in building the village, and God has truly blessed his efforts. So, when you compare someone who charges N5 million per role and can do twenty films a month to another earning N200,000 or N300,000 for just two projects monthly, the difference speaks for itself”, said Baba Otolo, who launched his distinguished career in film production with his debut television series, “Igba Nla” produced in 1989.
ALSO READ: How I lost my first child to poverty – Ibrahim Chatta
Before Baba Otolo’s revelation, Richard Mofe-Damijo, popularly known as RMD, had long been regarded as Nollywood’s highest-paid actor, celebrated for his outstanding performances in Nigeria, across Africa, and beyond.
Although English-speaking actors are typically known to command the highest fees in the industry, Baba Otolo’s revelation stood out as the first time a Yoruba actor publicly disclosed a colleague’s earnings per movie project.
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