Nollywood movie director Kunle Afolayan has said he’s willing to release his movies in cinemas only if he’s guaranteed he won’t have to dance to sell them.

Dancing to promote a movie showing in cinemas has become a trend in Nollywood, with social media littered with short videos of actors dancing while wearing the movie’s merchandise.

Fielding questions during an appearance at The Lagos Business of Film Summit, Afolayan highlighted the trend as one of the reasons why he has been away from cinema.

“I’m one of the people who started this cinema gig. Even all these dancing, I started dancing before anybody. You can ask. Even in London, so it’s not just local,” he said.

He said his cinema runs go back as far as 2006, “but see, it’s draining.”

He further stated, “I want to make a film. But if you guarantee me that I don’t have to dance to sell that film… We need to come up with other strategies. How do we sell without exhausting ourselves? I don’t know how Funke and the likes of them are doing it – creating all of those skits, every day changing into different costumes. I cannot,” he said.

A few days ago, Afolayan, who has been collaborating with Netflix, offered further insight into why his work has been away from the cinema scene.

He said, “I don’t want two billion in the cinema and even one billion, which I won’t even be able to take 10 million out of.”

Afolayan said this amid box office records set by Funke Akindele and Toyin Abraham, whose movies in cinemas have crossed the N1 billion mark.