The Theatre Arts and Motion Pictures Practitioners’ Association of Nigeria (TAMPAN) has called on the Federal Government to support the creative industry by establishing film villages across the country to ensure ease of shooting movies by filmmakers.

Bolaji Amusan, National President of TAMPAN, made the call in an interview on Sunday in Lagos.

Mr Amusan said to upscale the entertainment industry in Nigeria, film villages should be created for actors to use as their permanent movie locations.

He said this would not only protect actors from harassments by hoodlums and street urchins but also position actors to work better.

“We call on President Bola Tinubu to support us as actors, we want film villages to be built across states to make our work as actors easier.

“The film villages will be used as our movie locations where we can design and redesign to sooth our productions.

“We have suffered series of harassments from street urchins who just come to siphon money from us while shooting our films.

“When we have designated film villages known by all, the activities of these individuals will be checked outrightly and we will be able to produce more.

“This is what is obtainable in other climes, ours should not be an exception,” he said.

Mr Amusan urged the new government to provide soft loans with minimal interest rate as well as grants for actors, to improve the quality of Nigerian movies.

He further pleaded that legislations should be made to combat the age-long problem of piracy.

He noted that it was high time Nigeria took a cue from other developing nations to put in place the needed infrastructure for the entertainment industry to thrive.

He said the consistent problem of power outage must also be addressed as this is needed for seamless running of film productions.

“It is unfortunate that the immediate past government did not support the creative industry at all, except the governor of Lagos state, Gov. Babajide Sanwolu, who helped in building the industry in so many ways.

“We want access to airports, seaports and other federal government properties or establishments so as to make it easier for us to ply our trade.

“We also need support in the area of actors’ training, this will help in improving the quality of movies we churn out,” he said.

(NAN)