Veteran actor, writer, comedian and movie producer, Chinwetalu Agu has exclusively told www.calitown.com he occupies the enviable position of being the actor with the highest number of productions in Nollywood, a staggering 558 productions done over a 23-year period. He also informed that the productions include TV dramas dating back to his NTA days and has gone ahead to document all the productions, noting meticulously the character he played, when the production was shot, how much he was paid, clichés used in the productions as well as the movie location. In all of this it has however been difficult for Agu to pick out one production as his favourite insisting instead that, “every movie I do, I see it as a blockbuster and because I put in the same levels of energy in all my productions, it goes to show that even before the production hits the screen I have taken my work seriously and have no prefernces”.
Agu who was speaking to www.calitown.com in Calabar on the heels of the premiere of the movie, “Cross Decision”, a Debra Rich produced movie in conjunction with the Cross River State Department of Orientation and Public Affairs, further revealed that, “I buy all my productions; when I watch them, I laugh as you are laughing”. He was however sad that CRS had not worked out how it can reap the enormous benefits that Nollywood can offer. Particularly, Agu wondered “why Debra Rich seems to be alone in the struggle to launch CRS in Nollywood, it should not be the case. I am quite sure that they are several professionals here who should make inroads into Nollywood. Why is nothing happening from this angle, this is the question people from here must begin to ask themselves”.
The Amokwe, Udi Local Government Area of Enugu State born actor who came into lime-light, 31 years ago when he featured in the now rested Zeb Ejiro popular soap, “Ripples”, was emphatic when he insisted that “Debra Rich must be encouraged so that more Cross Riverians will thread this path; it is paying now to be an actor in Nigeria and the earlier people realise this and take this job seriously, the better for the teeming number of youths out there”.
For the city of Calabar, this is what he has to say; “the road network in Calabar is second to none, you even have trees planted and shading those who are trekking. I have not seen this combination in any other city and the environment makes you not want to leave the state. Calabar offers one, wonderful comfort. Look at how the cleaners do their work; it is as if their life depends on it. In other places, the people who sweep the streets show a lackadaisical attitude as if they are sweeping out of frustration, but in Calabar the story is different. The way people move about, it is as if they are on holidays, no stress. Motorists are organised, this place is the opposite of Lagos. In Lagos it is like a life and death affair, you look at everybody as if he is an enemy. To enter a bus in Lagos is a tug of war. In Calabar things are taken calmly and you seeing all this unfold will want to be a part of it like I have done”, he concludes.