Entertainment
The Big Names In 2009 Show Biz
Stephanie Okereke One of the good things that happened in 2009 was the N10 million movie titled premiere mark hit by top actress, Stephanie Okereke with her movie titled Through The Glass. Even though the film was not produced during 2009, it made an extra-ordinary mark and shot the status of Imo State-born actress high and made her one of the richest and most hardworking actresses in the country.
Funke Akindele
Funke got to the Zenith of her career through her celebrated movie Jenifa. The movie turned out be the only Yoruba speaking movie that has sold over one million copies in one year. Early in 2009, Funke won the award of best Actress in Africa at AMAA awards. She also scaled through and picked the prestigious Future Awards as the best Nollywood Actress for 2009. She equally bagged another as the best Actress for 2009 at the Afro Hollywood Awards. Her achievements and hardwork in the movie industry earned her endorsement deals with the telecom giant, Globacom worth N14 million per season for two seasons, as well as another one with the Lagos State Government. 2009 proved to be Funke Akindele’s year and it will not be out of place to say she was the wealthiest actress in that year.
Wedding Bells
The year 2009 ushered in a lot of weddings for showbiz people as many of them got their heart desires. There were lot of wedding in the year. Early in the year, and an unprecedented number of entertainers got married or renewed their wedding vows. Top actress Ini Edo opened the door for others to follow as she and her husband had their wedding in Houston, Texas, US after a superlative traditional marriage in her home town late in 2008. Ini’s wedding was followed shortly by another actress, kate Effiong whose traditional marriage was held in Lagos. After this, another huge surprise struck the Nigeria’s biggest veteran actress as, Liz Benson walked down the aisle after many years of widowshood and single parenthood. She got married to a Delta State based Bishop.
Ireti osayemi was the next to follow before Bisi Ibidapo-Obe got married to a German based businessman in secret. To end the year in style was Tricia Eseigbe, another top actress and a television presenter. She got married to kingsley Jite kerry in an elaborate wedding which pulled all the stops on the 19th of December.
Big Brother Africa 4
A Nigerian, Kelvin Chuwang Pam made Nigeria proud in far away South Africa when he became the first ever Nigerian to win the prestigious BBA 4 after years of trying. The Jos, Plateau State born 27 years old took home the handsome cash reward of S200,000 for his troubles.
Brand Endorsements
The year 2009 was a good year for Nigerian actors as corporate endorsements came in from every angle for some of them. Despite the fact that the movie industry remained in a state of inertia, the few fortunate artistes hit big with brand endorsements. The most prominent among them was the famous Globacom endorsements that telecoms giant splashed on the acts. Those who were lucky to be made Globacom Ambassadors worth a whooping N500 million were Rita Dominic, Uche Jumbo, Monalisa Chinda, Funke Akindele, Chioma Chukwuka, Ramsey Noah, Desmond Elliot, Jim Iyke, Nonso Diobi, Mike Ezeuruonye. Aside the Glo endorsements artists like Funke Akindele, Bimbo Akintola, Segun Arinze and Kate Henshaw Nultal also got endorsement from the Lagos State government while the likes of Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde and Jide Kosoko became Chi Plc Ambassadors.
Movie Premieres
Apart from the premiere of Stephamie Okereke’s Through The Glass the year witnessed more premieres than any other year which gave the movie industry a serious lift.
Movie maker, Emem Isong and actor Desmond Elliot premiered Guilty pleasures which was considered to be one of the blockbusters of 2009. top actress, Uche Jumbo premiered Nollywood Hustlers, which received lots of accolades from people in and outside the industry. Vivian Ejike, another top movie maker also premiered her movie silent scandals while top Yoruba actress, Bisi Ibidapo equally premiered Igboran San. Not left out in the season of premiere was Kunle Afolayan who premiered his movie figurine which turned out to be one of the best movies shot in the year.
Sound Sultan
Lanrenwaju Fasasi is the man behind the brand Sound Sultan and for him, the biggest breakthrough he had in year was the successful release of his fourth album, SS4 and the marriage to his wife Farida as well as birth of his child, a beautiful female baby named Zara. If such were the yardsticks used to judge the success of man in his life, sound sultan will be singled out as a man who increased the population of Nigeria by one and recorded so much in terms of registering his presence as a force to be reckoned within the industry year 2009.
Femi Kuti Got Nominated For The Grammy
Scion of the late Afro Beat creator, Fela Anikulapo Kuti, Femi got a well deserved nomination for grammy Awards even though he had not been too visible in the Nigerian music scene in 2009. the living Afrobeat King had cause to rejoice and boast that his works are seriously receiving global attention in the sense that he was nominated for the second time for the world’s most popular music award coming up in February 2010 in America.
Nelson Brown Blessed With A Son
Close to a decade after, he got married to his wife Mary, God blessed the family with a bouncing male baby. The birth that came in 2009, brought smiles to the face of the longsuffering music producer.
Paul Dairo/Kl Escape Death
It was good news when top of the range musical act survived cancer scare after he had minor surgery in South Africa. The talent musician, song writer and producer had cause to thank God in 2009, and has bounced back to doing what he loves doing. It was also the same cheering news for KI De ultimate, who was surprisingly diagnosed of living infection and was operated in Canada. The king of Fuji music has also retired to the country and is doing even better.
John Enyie
The family of veteran Nollywood actor, Pete Edochie, has dismissed viral rumours circulating on social media claiming that the film icon is dead.
Reacting to the reports in a video shared on his Instagram page on Tuesday, the actor’s eldest son, Leo Edochie, described the claim as false and malicious.
“I’ve been receiving text messages and calls over the nonsense post by some people that our father, Chief Pete Edochie, is dead. It is a lie from the pit of hell,” he said.
Leo added that the actor is alive and in good health, condemning those responsible for spreading the rumour.
“Our father is alive, hale and hearty. And if you wish someone dead, two things usually happen. The person will live very long and you will die before him. Shame to all of you,” he said.
The rumour had sparked concern among fans before the family’s clarification.
Nollywood veteran actress Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde is making her directorial debut with a different and sharper focus. Speaking recently with Newsmen,, the screen icon highlighted a glaring void in the industry’s catalogue, which is the authentic reality of mother-daughter relationships.
“We don’t have too many films that explore or showcase the relationship between mothers and daughters,” Omotola said during the interview, describing the subject as something deeply personal to her.
Speaking honestly about raising her first daughter, she admitted she had only one mode at the time, which was discipline. “I didn’t do a good job,” she said plainly, explaining that she understood motherhood strictly through control, not softness or emotional openness.
At the centre of Mother’s Love is Adebisi, a sheltered young woman from a wealthy home whose life is shaped by her father’s rigid control. Her first taste of freedom comes through NYSC, where distance from home allows her to begin discovering who she is outside her family’s expectations. She forms a friendship with a young man from a more modest background, and through him, starts to see the world and herself differently.
But the emotional core of the film isn’t Adebisi’s rebellion. It’s her mother. Long after being presented as quiet and compliant, she slowly reveals a resolve when her daughter’s safety and future are threatened. As secrets surface and buried grief comes into view, Mother’s Love becomes less about youthful independence and more about maternal sacrifice, unspoken trauma, and the emotional costs of survival inside a patriarchal home.
The Tide Entertainment reports that the film doesn’t shy away from weighty themes by including PTSD, unresolved grief, and social inequality at the centre of the story. It is far removed from the soft-focus sentimentality that often defines Mother’s Day-style narratives.
It also marks Omotola’s directorial debut, a significant moment considering how long she has shaped Nollywood from the front of the camera. She stars in the film alongside a mix of familiar faces and newer talent, including Ifeanyi Kalu, Olumide Oworu, and Noray Nehita.
Beyond the film itself, Omotola’s interview touched on a tension that has been simmering in Nollywood for a while now: how movies are marketed in the age of TikTok. Addressing the growing expectation for actors and filmmakers to create viral dance content to promote their work, she didn’t mince words. The pressure, she said, is exhausting and unnatural.
For her, the industry wasn’t meant to function this way. Still, she was careful not to judge anyone else’s approach. Everyone invests differently, carries different risks, and should be allowed to promote their films however they see fit.
“Do whatever you can do. It’s exhausting, it’s not natural. For me, the film industry is not supposed to be like that. We are encouraging nonsense if we are doing that. It doesn’t mean that whoever is doing it is wrong.”
Her comments arrive not long after the public back-and-forth between Kunle Afolayan and Funke Akindele over marketing styles, a debate that quickly turned into a proxy war between prestige storytelling and viral strategy. Omotola’s stance sits somewhere calmer. She understands the shift social media has brought, but she’s also clear about her own boundaries.
Omotola’s critique about the lack of mother-daughter stories isn’t unfounded. In Nollywood, mothers often exist as symbols rather than people. They’re either saintly figures who pray endlessly for their children or villains whose cruelty drives the plot forward. What’s missing is intimacy, the negotiations, and the regrets. The love that exists alongside resentment and misunderstanding.
Films rarely sit with the emotional complexity of women raising daughters in systems that also failed them. There’s little room for mothers who made mistakes but are still trying, or daughters who love their mothers while questioning the damage they inherited. Mother’s Love attempts to occupy that space, offering a more grounded portrayal that reflects lived experience rather than archetypes.
That’s where the film’s potential impact lies, in the decision to centre a relationship that Nollywood has largely flattened. If it works, it could open the door for more stories that treat motherhood as a lived, evolving reality rather than a fixed moral position.
Mother’s Love, directed by and starring Omotola Jalade Ekeinde, had its world premiere at the 50th Toronto International Film Festival on September 6, 2025. The film is set for a nationwide cinema release in Nigeria on March 6, 2026.
Funke Akindele’s Behind The Scenes becomes Nollywood’s highest-grossing film of 2025, earning ?1.77bn in under four weeks.
Multi-award-winning actress and producer Funke Akindele has done it again, and this time, the numbers speak louder than applause.
Her latest film, Behind The Scenes, has officially emerged as the highest-grossing Nollywood film of 2025, pulling in an astonishing ?1.767 billion in less than four weeks.
The Tide Entertainment reports that Funke Akindele Makes Box Office History as Behind The Scenes Crosses ?1.77bn
Earlier in its release cycle, the film’s distributor, FilmOne Entertainment, revealed that Behind The Scenes smashed five opening-weekend records, including the highest single-day gross ever recorded on Boxing Day, with ?129.5 million in one day. That announcement already hinted that something unusual was unfolding.
Reacting to the milestone, FilmOne described the moment as both surreal and communal, crediting audience loyalty for pushing the film to the top spot once again as the number-one movie of the weekend. And that sentiment feels accurate. This wasn’t just ticket sales; it was momentum.
What makes this achievement even more striking is that Behind The Scenes is Funke Akindele’s third film to cross the ?1 billion mark. Before now, there was A Tribe Called Judah, and then Everybody Loves Jenifa, a film that didn’t just open big, but went on to become the highest-grossing Nollywood film of all time. At this point, it’s no longer a fluke. It’s a pattern.
Part of Behind The Scenes’ success lies in strategy. The film enjoyed advanced screenings on December 10 and 11, quietly building curiosity and conversation before its nationwide release on December 12. By the time it officially hit cinemas, audiences already felt like they needed to see it.
Then there’s the cast. The film brings together a lineup that feels deliberately stacked: Scarlet Gomez, Iyabo Ojo, Destiny Etiko, Tobi Bakre, Uche Montana, and several others. Familiar faces, strong fan bases, and performances that kept word-of-mouth alive long after opening weekend.
Still, beyond timing and casting, there’s something else at work here. Funke Akindele understands Nigerian audiences. Their humour, their pacing, their emotional buttons. She doesn’t guess, she calculates, experiments, listens, and refines. That understanding has slowly turned into box-office dominance.
Behind The Scenes crossing ?1.77 billion isn’t just another headline; it’s confirmation. Funke Akindele has moved from being a successful actress to becoming one of the most reliable commercial forces Nollywood has ever produced. Three-billion-naira films don’t happen by luck. They happen when storytelling, business sense, and audience trust align.
And right now, that alignment seems firmly in her hands.
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