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Veteran Nigerian filmmaker Tunde Kelani has opened up about his lifelong dedication to using cinema as a vehicle for safeguarding and celebrating Yoruba heritage, tracing this commitment back to his formative years in Abeokuta, Ogun State.
Speaking in a candid interview with Punch, the acclaimed cinematographer reflected on how his childhood exposure to Yoruba oral traditions and language shaped the trajectory of his entire career.
Tunde Kelani explained that Abeokuta, as a cultural crossroads, gave him an early foundation in Yoruba literacy that ran alongside his formal English education, allowing him to draw comparisons between what he absorbed through Western-style social studies and the indigenous knowledge passed down through Yoruba tradition.
Tunde Kelani's journey into visual storytelling began with an initial fascination with photography before he transitioned fully into filmmaking.
His break came through an appointment at Western United Television, where he received hands-on training as a camera operator.
Seeking to deepen his craft, Tunde Kelani later travelled to the United Kingdom to study at the London Film School, immersing himself in both the creative and technical dimensions of cinema before returning home to continue his career in Nigerian television.
Throughout his career, Tunde Kelani has drawn inspiration from a wide range of global cinematic traditions, citing influences from Hollywood, Japan, India, Italy and various European film movements. Despite this broad exposure, he maintains that his artistic identity remains distinctly rooted in Yoruba culture, describing his approach as one shaped by, yet ultimately distinct from, the international styles he has studied.
Tunde Kelani noted that his admiration for the Yoruba acting tradition has only deepened as a result of his engagement with cinema on a global scale.
For Tunde Kelani, language and culture form the very core of his identity as an artist. He described Yoruba heritage as inseparable from his sense of self, framing his filmmaking not merely as a profession but as an extension of who he fundamentally is.
The filmmaker also used the platform to advocate for greater representation of Nigeria's vast cultural diversity within the country's film industry.
Tunde Kelani pointed out that despite Nigeria being home to over 300 distinct languages, the nation's cinematic output rarely reflects this richness, calling for a more inclusive approach to storytelling that better mirrors the country's multicultural makeup.
Tunde Kelani traced his early love of literature to childhood circumstances, revealing that reading became a source of solace during a period when he lived apart from his mother. That formative relationship with books, he said, has continued to inform his storytelling instincts throughout his filmmaking career.
His most recent project, Cordelia, is a film adaptation of playwright Femi Osofisan's novel of the same name, exploring themes of political turmoil through the relationship between a university lecturer and a student.
Tunde Kelani's production company, Mainframe Films and Television Productions, founded in the early 1990s, has been behind a string of celebrated titles over the decades, including Saworoide, Thunderbolt: Magun, Arugba and Maami, cementing his reputation as one of Nigeria's most influential cultural filmmakers.
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