Celebrity Gossip & Gist

Everything You Need To Know About Nigerian Film Maker Tunde Kelani

Published

7 years ago

February 28, 2018

Tunde kelani popularly known as TK is a celebrated movie producer, director, screenwriter, cinematographer, photographer and film promoter in Nigeria. He is one of the foremost people to blend the Yoruba culture and art with films.

Tunde specializes in producing movies that promote Nigeria’s rich cultural heritage and have a root in documentation, archiving, education, entertainment and promotion of the culture.

He runs one of the acclaimed movie production company Mainframe Film & Television Productions, a company that produces works that has deep Nigerian culture and heritage.

He has shown his love for his Yoruba roots by promoting the culture in every of his movie. But most of all he he an astounding film maker and the world of the cinema will always be his first love.

These are 8 facts you didn’t know about the film maker.
1. Tunde Kelani was born 26 February 1948 in Lagos.

2.He attended the Oke-Ona Primary School in Ikija, Abeokuta and had his secondary school education at Abeokuta grammar school.

3. While Tunde Kelani was growing up with his grandparents in Abeokuta, he was exposed to a lot of Yoruba cultures that influenced his love. He was also a lover of literature, going to see all the acts and theater groups in town while growing up.

4. Tunde Kelani love for photography was also from a young age. Throughout his secondary school education, he was actively investing money and taking to time to learn photography. So, inevitably, he became an apprentice photographer after he finished secondary school. Later, he trained at the then Western Nigeria Television (WNTV) and went further to attend the London Film School.

5. In the 1970s, Kelani worked as a BBC TV and Reuters correspondent, and in Nigerian TV. For Reuters he travelled to Ethiopia to cover the drought and to Zimbabwe three times to cover independence there.

6.Tunde Kelani co-produced his first film with Adebayo Faleti called The Dilema of Rev. Father Michael. (Idaamu Paadi Minkailu) . Other co-producers include Alhaji Lasisi Oriekun, Wale Fanubi – his partner from Cinekraft, Yemi Farounbi and screenplay by Lola Fani-Kayode

7. In 1991 TK started the Mainframe Film and television Production comapany so he could produce films and not just lend technical support. Having emerged from the world of theater and literature, adaptations of books and plays for cinema are the core of his film making practice and through them he celebrates writers and their work to what he sees as a public that reads less and less.

8. He has produced many inspiring films like Ti Oluwa Nile, Ayo Ni Mo Fe , Koseegbe, Oleku, Thunderbolt (Magun), Saworoide , Agogo Eewo , The Campus Queen , Abeni , Narrow Path, Arugba and Maami.