Omotola and Genevieve were both tricked into acting together in Ije

Omotola, Chineze & Genevieve

The blockbuster movie, Ije, took over the cinemas when it was released, and eventually became one of the highest grossing Nigerian movies ever produced. A major reason for this achievement, is definitely the fact that two of  Nollywood’s biggest names, Genevieve Nnaji and Omotola Jalade-Ekeinde, played the leading roles.
But producer, Chineze Anyaene, says it was not easy getting the two ‘rivals’ to work together with her and she had to resort to old tricks.

“When I was even thinking of approaching them, a lot of people discouraged me saying the pair don’t talk but I went ahead to ‘chase’ them for months,” she revealed.“When I called Omotola, she asked who the other actress was, I said Genevieve and when I called Genevieve she asked who the other actress was, I said Omotola (laughs) and she was like, ‘has she agreed?’ I said yes and Omotola asked me too if Genevieve had agreed, I said yes meanwhile they hadn’t even agreed (laughs) but I had to use that trick to be able to get them together in the film.
The Masters degree holder in Filmmaking from the New York Film Academy (NYFA), however said after she was able to contract thm, everything went on smoothly.
“It was a wonderful experience working with these two stars, they knew I was a student at the New York Film Academy at that time.