OPE BANWO RE-POSITIONS

Industry enthusiasts thought that he had gone for good after he threw in the towel at Dove Media where he held sway as the Managing Director for a period of time. Today, Ope is back and poised to take the entertainment business to the next level.
His name was suggested to the General Overseer of the Redeemed Christian Church of God few years back as the authentic man to take over the challenges of Dove Media. He was immediately invited into the country then from the United States of America where he was based as the pioneer MD of Dove Media. Somewhere along the line, they fell apart and he returned to the States where he has been living since 1994.
Ope opened up to Glitz Stage few days back on how it feels to be involved in the business of entertainment. His new company, Stiglomania, is an all round entertainment solution provider. He is offering what has continually eluded most of our stars especially the movie stars.
He admitted to Glitz Stage that he made quite some number of mistakes when he was at Dove Media due to politics of religion. “I made major mistakes while with Dove Media. Not managing the personalities that I was supposed to deal with and not understanding the mindset of Nigerians probably because I was new in the media then. I accept responsibilities for all actions at Dove Media”.
He did well as the Managing Director of Dove Media due to his track records. While at Dove Media, he was able to market some movies. He marketed Covenant Church and Madam Dearest. “I guarantee 100,000 copies of Madam Dearest before I saw the film. I believe the power is in having lots of Distribution outlets. I don’t believe in Government doing things for us. Entrepreneurs should be the ones doing it while the government regulates”.
Dove Media is a full Christian company that is meant to evangelise and win more souls to the kingdom. Banwo had a different view of how to win more souls but some of his colleagues didn’t share his views. “Best form of evangelism is the sortie one. The problem with the Christian movies is that they are not evangelical movies. They are discipleship movies. In a situation where you act Jesus films, only Christians would watch”.
In his church in the United States , a day is dedicated to watching movies and other activities that brings lots of youth to the church and they later preach Jesus.” Being a pastor does not make everything I do biblical. I even invite people to my church to watch movies every last Friday before we talk about Jesus. It’s like a club but drinking is excluded”.
Banwo has a great love for Nollywood and he is presently helping to take it to the next level by connecting different Nollywood stars with their fans all over the world by opening a fan book for them where they can chat with their fans all over the world. He also believes that actors and actresses shouldn’t be limited to their performance fees only.” Actors and actresses are one dimensional. There are problems in the industry which I want to look into. I want to set up a Christian Base Entertainment Company to exploit and help the people to the Next level. The actor and actresses are making the problem in Nollywood grow bigger because there are less matured stars. Their income comes from acting only. The income of what they do should be less than their total income. Example is Tiger Woods; he makes $10M in Golf playing and $300m a year”.
Ope sees himself as an innovator, dreamer and philosopher. He wants every body to operate in their specialised areas. Marketers should market only, and Directors should only direct while distributors should focus on distribution. “My coming back is not just to produce and market films. I have built over 17 websites for different actors and actresses. I have also signed two new artistes, Natural and Edu, on my label. It’s about time we take the game to an unprecedented level"
Ope Banwo is so passionate with what he is doing at the moment and he is putting all he has into it. “The websites creation is one of my most passionate projects at this point of my coming back to Nigeria . I’m trying to have a facebook kind of site. I’m also working on my ‘farm books’ for the stars in Nigeria . It’s about creating an atmosphere for the stars to relate on-line with their fans all over the world. I construct it for them for free”.