Funke Akindele, the record-breaking actress and producer in Nollywood, recently recounted the pivotal role played by ace musician D’banj in her career. The highest-grossing filmmaker in Nigeria’s box office history disclosed that D’banj had financially supported her to establish her ‘Jenifa’ brand of films, which catapulted her to fame.
She shared this revelation at D’banj’s 20th anniversary dinner celebrating his two decades in the music industry, held in Lagos on a Saturday. Akindele recounted, “After the big break with ‘Jenifa’, I was out there, and people were celebrating me. A club owner invited me to his club then. He said, ‘I want to host you. You’re very hardworking. I love ‘Jenifa’. Come with your cast and crew members.’ So, we went and I saw D’banj for the first time. I was starstruck. But he said, ‘I am here to celebrate you.’ So, we danced and he gave me his number.”
“He took me to a quiet place and said, ‘Why did you let ‘Jenifa’ go like that? That’s a brand that you can feed on for the rest of your life.’ I was like, ‘What’s this guy saying? Me that was doing Yoruba movies.’ He said, ‘No, ‘Jenifa’ has to come back. Get in touch with me, any support you need I will give you.’ So I reached out to him and he said, ‘When you’ve a brand, you feed on the brand. You milk the brand very well, make money out of it.'”
“He gave me some money and said, ‘Go and write another ‘Jenifa’, I support you with this money.’ I was like, ‘Really? No strings attached?’ He said, ‘No.’ That was how he funded ‘The Return Of Jenifa.’ And till date, the brand is still relevant. Christmas 2024, we are coming with ‘Everybody Loves Jenifa.’”
