Kunle Afolayan and Omoni Oboli Celebrate 18 Years of Friendship as She Visits KAP Film Village for a Shoot
Kunle Afolayan and Omoni Oboli have given Nollywood one of its warmest celebrity moments this week, as the two longtime friends marked eighteen years of friendship following Oboli’s visit to Afolayan’s KAP Film Village in Igbojaye, Oyo State.
On Tuesday, October 20, 2026, Afolayan shared a video on social media capturing Oboli and her team at the film village, where they had arrived for a shoot. The post quickly drew attention — not just for the glimpse of the sprawling facility, but for the heartfelt caption in which Afolayan traced their relationship back nearly two decades.
“My journey with Omoni started in 2008 with the Figurine ‘Araromire’, and we are still here. I am very proud of your achievement so far. Keep winning @Omonioboli. This is the second shoot @kapfilmvillage in one month. Come and let partner,” he wrote.
A Friendship Forged on The Figurine
The roots of the bond go back to The Figurine: Araromire, the 2009 mystery thriller that Afolayan directed and produced, in which Oboli played the role of Mona. The film — which also starred Ramsey Nouah, Femi Adebayo, Wale Ojo, and Funlola Aofiyebi — became one of the defining pictures of the New Nollywood wave, praised for its cinematic ambition and its weaving of Yoruba folklore into a modern thriller.
Oboli has often spoken about how pivotal that production was in her life. During the shoot, she spent so much time behind the camera that onlookers could easily have mistaken her for Afolayan’s assistant. That immersion, she has said, opened her eyes to the director’s craft — and pushed her toward becoming a filmmaker in her own right.
The experience was, in hindsight, a masterclass she did not know she was attending. Watching Afolayan direct a large-scale production day after day planted the seed that would later grow into one of the most successful directing careers in contemporary Nollywood.
An Award-Winning Collaboration
The industry itself recognized the quality of that early collaboration. At the 2010 Africa Movie Academy Awards, The Figurine took home the prizes for Best Film and Best Director for Afolayan — two of the most prestigious honors on the continent. Oboli, meanwhile, earned a Best Actress nomination for her performance as Mona, cementing her standing as one of the leading dramatic talents of her generation.
For both of them, the film was a turning point. Afolayan’s win confirmed his reputation as a director of uncommon ambition; Oboli’s nomination confirmed hers as an actress of real depth. That they shared that breakthrough moment is part of why the friendship has endured — they quite literally rose together.
Oboli Praises the “Audacity” of KAP Film Village
During the visit, Oboli could not hide her admiration for what Afolayan has built in Igbojaye. The KAP Film Village — a purpose-built production facility carved out of what was once a forested area — represents one of the most ambitious private infrastructure projects in Nigerian entertainment.
Oboli praised Afolayan for having the audacity to look at an expanse of forest and envision a working film village, and then for actually building it. Her words echoed a sentiment shared by many in the industry: that Afolayan’s willingness to invest in long-term creative infrastructure sets him apart from colleagues who focus only on individual productions.
That this is already the second shoot at the village within a single month, as Afolayan noted in his caption, speaks to how quickly the facility is becoming a working hub — not just a personal dream, but a commercial asset the wider industry can use. His invitation, “Come and let partner,” was an open call to fellow filmmakers to bring their productions to Igbojaye.
Kunle Afolayan: The Builder
Afolayan’s career has long been defined by scale. The son of the legendary theatre and film producer Ade Love, he broke out as an actor before moving behind the camera, where his directorial projects — including Phone Swap, October 1, The CEO, and the Netflix-backed Anikulapo franchise and Ijakumo — established him as one of the few Nigerian directors routinely mounting large-scale productions.
Anikulapo, in particular, became a cultural phenomenon on Netflix, spawning a sequel film and a series that introduced Yoruba epic storytelling to a global streaming audience. The KAP Film Village is, in many ways, the physical extension of that same instinct: if Nigerian stories are going to be told at cinematic scale, the infrastructure has to exist at home.
That a fellow filmmaker of Oboli’s stature is now bringing her own productions to the village is the clearest validation yet that the gamble is paying off.
Omoni Oboli: From Mona to Mogul
Oboli’s own journey since The Figurine has been nothing short of remarkable. The acting career that earned her that AMAA nomination was only the first act. In the years that followed, she reinvented herself as one of Nollywood’s most bankable directors and producers.
Her directing credits read like a catalog of modern Nollywood box office successes: Being Mrs Elliott, The First Lady, Wives on Strike, Okafor’s Law, and Moms at War — films that combined commercial instincts with broad audience appeal and made Oboli one of the few women consistently calling the shots at the top of the industry.
More recently, she has built Omoni Oboli TV, her YouTube channel, into a thriving platform for original content — a move that has made her one of the pioneers of Nollywood’s digital-first economy, reaching audiences directly without waiting for cinema slots or streaming commissions.
It is that trajectory — from the actress Afolayan directed in 2008/2009 to the multi-hyphenate powerhouse visiting his village as a peer with her own team — that made Afolayan’s “I am very proud of your achievement so far” land with such genuine warmth.
Eighteen Years and Still Here
In an industry where friendships are often transactional and short-lived, an eighteen-year creative bond is worth celebrating. Afolayan and Oboli’s relationship has survived the usual pressures — competing ambitions, changing power dynamics, the shift from cinema to streaming — because it was built on something sturdier than convenience: mutual respect forged on a difficult, ambitious film.
The video from KAP Film Village captured that ease. This was not a staged publicity reunion but a working visit between two professionals who happen to share nearly two decades of history — the kind of relationship that needs no performance because the record speaks for itself.
Fans have responded with delight, flooding the comments with messages celebrating the friendship and marveling at how far both have come since Araromire. Many noted the symmetry: the director who once taught by example now hosts the protégée who became a powerhouse in her own right.
The Figurine’s Lasting Legacy
It is worth pausing on just how significant The Figurine: Araromire was — and remains — in the story of Nigerian cinema. Released in 2009, at a moment when the industry was still shaking off the direct-to-video era’s reputation for rushed productions, the film was a statement of intent: Nigerian stories could be shot with cinematic patience, built around atmosphere and folklore, and still find an audience.
Its success helped usher in the New Nollywood movement, the wave of cinema-first filmmaking that eventually produced the box office era we see today. Young directors still cite it as proof that ambition is not a Western import — that a Yoruba legend about a cursed figurine could be staged with the craft of an international thriller and win continental honors for it.
That Afolayan and Oboli’s friendship was forged in the making of a film this consequential adds weight to the anniversary. They were not just colleagues on any set; they were participants in a production that helped change what Nigerian cinema believed itself capable of. No wonder the bond stuck.
Why the Post Landed So Well
The warmth of the reception is easy to understand. In an industry often in the headlines for feuds and controversies, two stars at this level publicly celebrating each other — with no project to promote and nothing to douse — is a genuinely rare sight. Oboli’s arc adds a layer that resonates: the actress who learned by lingering behind the camera on someone else’s set, now arriving at that same director’s film village with her own crew and her own production. It is the kind of full-circle story every creative hopes to complete one day.
The village itself drew its share of attention too, with industry watchers noting Afolayan’s open invitation to “come and let partner” as a sign he is actively courting more productions for the facility.
A Milestone for the Village Too
Beyond the personal milestone, Oboli’s shoot marks another step in the KAP Film Village’s emergence as a destination. Two productions in one month is a meaningful pace for a facility of its kind in Nigeria, and Afolayan’s open invitation to “come and let partner” suggests he is actively courting more.
If the village continues on this trajectory, it could become what its founder envisioned: a permanent home for large-scale Nigerian filmmaking, reducing the industry’s dependence on makeshift locations and rented facilities. That Oboli — with all her options as an established producer — chose it for her shoot is the kind of endorsement money cannot buy.
Eighteen years after a forest-side friendship began on the set of The Figurine, both the friendship and the forest have grown into something remarkable.
Source: The News Chronicle, Legit.ng, QED.ng