Funke Akindele’s Path to a Billion Naira

That movie was Funke Akindele’s billion-naira grossing, A Tribe Called Judah. With theatres all around Lagos at full capacity and long waiting lines just for a chance to buy a ticket, Akindele expanded the festive spirit among family, friends and colleagues at one of Nigeria’s darkest socio-economic periods. In addition to her conquest in December, Akindele holds the top three spots for highest-grossing films ever in Nigeria. With nearly three decades since her debut, participating in multiple film movements and trends, maintaining popularity and achieving momentous gross box office numbers, Akindele is Nigeria’s most versatile filmmaker.

Akindele was born into a middle-class family with a school principal father and a medical doctor mother. She holds an OND in Mass Communication from Moshood Abiola Polytechnic, Ogun State (then Ogun State Polytechnic) and a Law degree from the University of Lagos. Despite the education and position of her parents, she recalled in a 2019 YouTube video her early life being rather difficult at times, especially due to financial troubles.

Akindele has maintained her online presence and curated her image carefully. Over the years she has grown into a revered ‘aunty’ figure for many Nigerians, commanding respect and awe. In her 2019 Second Chances vlog on YouTube, she talked about receiving several rejections in her career. She recounted a time in 1998 when she would audition relentlessly and often end up as wakapass, (the slang meaning extra). The self-proclaimed ‘Queen of Audition and Queen of Wakapass’ eventually got her big break. In what is usually considered her screen debut, she starred as Bisi, a lead role in I Need to Know. At this time, Akindele was about 20 years old. The show explored societal issues especially that of population control. It was sponsored by the United Nations Population Fund and aired on the National Television Authority. I Need to Know ran till 2002. Despite the show’s relative popularity, Akindele struggled to find work and sign-off roles that were advertised. This phenomenon is still common among actors and performers today; they are invited to audition for a role and are ‘cast’ as that character then at the last minute, they are given the script of a completely different—and often less important character—immediately putting them on the spot to waste their time and return home or suck it up and get paid a meagre fee.

A year after I Need to Know ended, Akindele performed in the modern classic, Egg of Life. She starred alongside veterans such as Padita Agu, Nkiru Sylvanus, Pete Edochie and Clarion Chukwura. A simple search on YouTube pulls up the film with one of its top comments being: ‘This movie was our Game of Thrones in the early 2000s. Legendary.’

Egg of Life is a horror adventure. Its plot revolves around the illness of the prince—an only child—who was born an Ogbanje, which, among Igbos, refers to a cursed child who interacts with spirits and the spirit world. In some instances, the child dies at their will or the will of the other spirits. They may return to the world of the living later on as a newborn to same or other parents. In this way, they are similar to the Yoruba Abiku. In the case of this prince, he was born an Ogbanje and was being asked by the spirits to ‘return to them’. He didn’t want to and overstayed in the land of the living. As a result, he was placed in a sleep-like state either till he died, or the gods intervened. To appease the gods and beg for his life, seven virgins were required to journey into the evil forest to retrieve ‘the egg of life’. Theirs was a quest to restore harmony and peace to the land. Though the film is credited for its plot and stellar cast, Akindele played a relatively minor role as Isioma. She was one of the girls chosen to go into the evil forest and her character passed in the forest (along with five other girls) and never made it back home. Her character did not have a backstory previewed during the film’s first act either. This tallies with Akindele’s comment about working on I Need to Know as a national star while not being able to secure important roles for a while despite her talent and fame.

The NollyBabe era in Nollywood is perhaps its second most iconic film wave (after the ‘money ritual’ era). The era is immortalized by its ‘hot girl’ cast, striking hair and makeup true to the ‘Y2k’ scene, snarky/witty lines and an intense thirst for affluence and luxury. It was within this era that Akindele’s ‘why are you running?’ meme first emerged. The scene, which was from her performance in the 2014 film, Pretty Liars 1, was popularized on YouTube and then on Twitter (now X) in 2016. As of February 2024, the top two results for the meme on YouTube have a combined view of 86 million views. Since 2016, the meme has found its way to TikTok and other social media platforms as an item that is ever-relevant in millennial, Gen Z and Gen Alpha pop culture. In 2022 and 2023, there were spikes in the second half of the meme where Akindele responds to the man about taking his money. The sound, ‘even if you involve the police, I’ll win this case. Yeah, right. Huh, huh…’ currently has thousands of clips on TikTok. Another evergreen film from this era is White Hunters, which went viral twice in 2023 and reached a peak in September through October. Akindele starred in the film alongside Mercy Johnson and Ini Edo.

While the Nollybabe era is often reminisced for its fashion (production design) and outrageous plot lines, the era showcased the socio-cultural realities of young women in cities, usually still in university trying to meet social class expectations. These films document hypergamy while depicting the glaring conditions awaiting those who do not achieve it. Much like the immortalization of familiar global classic performances like Rowan Atkinson’s Mr Bean, Akindele’s performances have led up to her immortalization in international pop culture.

Propelled by her mother’s advice, the Queen of Wakapass took a leap into production and began her own company, Scene One Production, alongside Abimbola Akindele (her sister) and Pelumi Ojo as directors in the company. She starred in her production debut, 13th Day: Ojó Ketàlá, alongside known Yoruba film actors, Iyabo Ojo and Yinka Quadri.

Her next project, Jenifa (2008), would ultimately become what she is best known for.  Jenifa was a modern classic that explored ambition, morals and what could have been considered the Nigerian dream at some point: going to university, making an honest living and financially uplifting your dependents usually not limited to family members.

The film once again featured several acting peers from the Yoruba film sub-industry. Jenifa was a hit, selling multiple copies, receiving four nominations and a win for Best Actress in a Leading Role at the 2009 Africa Movie Academy Awards. The film hit pop culture dominance with phrases and words of the main character’s speech style and mannerisms copied by numerous Nigerians. Jenifa as a character and a film perfectly placed Nigerian wit and ever-present humour in its world building and characterization.

Its sequel, The Return of Jenifa, was released in 2011. The film featured several known musical acts including Wizkid, Shasha P, Banky W, eLDee and Necto C. The sequel grossed about N10 million within seven days and was extended for two weeks at the cinema. At the time, it was Nollywood’s fastest grossing movie of all time while showing in just three cinemas; Silverbird Lagos, Silverbird Abuja and Ozone Cinema Yaba, Lagos. Noting the success of both films, it was no surprise that Jenifa’s Diary was greenlit and released in 2015. Akindele’s show was a seasonal hit. With a release date of Dec 8, 2016, Jenifa’s Diary on YouTube Season 1, Ep 1 has a total of 1,098,650 views with the least watch being 618,000 views in that season.  Today, the series has a total of 24 seasons making it one of the longest-lasting sitcoms in the country.