Veteran Nollywood actor Yemi Solade has revealed that he started acting before Pete Edochie.
In a chat after his episode on ‘Father’s Path with Tope,’ he said, “I’m senior to Pete Edochie, I started acting before him, though he’s older than me. I was 17 in 1977 when I represented Nigeria as the Youngest Actor, and I’ve done 48 years in the industry and still standing.”
Yemi said the Yoruba movie industry has been around for a long time. Before cassettes and videos, Yoruba actors were already doing stage plays. Recording these plays only started later when camcorders came out.
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He said even though the Yoruba industry didn’t record their movies early, they were there before others. He mentioned Ade Ajiboye (Big Abass) who started home videos, and legends like Baba Sala, Ogunde, Ade Love, and Ola Balogun who were acting before Nollywood became popular.
Yemi Solade said, “My people in the Yoruba setting didn’t document anything; that was why the other people in the industry just stepped in to say they started it. Hey shut up; when people like us are here, we will let you know you didn’t start anything.”
He added that Yoruba actors back then didn’t know how to use the media to promote themselves, which is why others claimed they started Nollywood. He said Jide Kosoko and Adebayo Salami know these stories well because they saw it all happen.
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