Why ‘Agbara Nla’ Was Brought Back After 33 Years - Damilola Bamiloye

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Filmmaker Damilola Bamiloye has opened up about the thinking behind his decision, alongside his brother Joshua, to bring their father Mike Bamiloye's classic 1993 Christian film Agbara Nla back to life more than three decades after its original release.

Speaking to Punch, he revealed that the idea first took shape roughly four years ago when he and Joshua approached their father with thoughts of revisiting some of his earlier work, with Agbara Nla standing out as the strongest candidate. 

The brothers had spent time imagining how the story might be reworked for a modern audience, eventually growing convinced that a contemporary retelling could resonate in ways the original never had the chance to. Their father, however, was not immediately on board, feeling the timing simply wasn't right to revisit the project.

That hesitation eventually gave way when Damilola Bamiloye brought the concept to a producer named Chris the following year. 

According to him, Chris responded with genuine enthusiasm and quickly became convinced that the remake needed to happen, pushing the idea forward with a level of conviction that helped tip the scales. Armed with that renewed momentum, the brothers returned to their father, who this time gave his blessing for the project to proceed.

Filming for the new version, titled Agbara Nla: The Return, was completed in a tight window of roughly three weeks. 

He explained that the remake stays faithful to the original narrative and its full cast of characters, translating the same story beat for beat into a form built for today's audience rather than the one the 1993 version was designed to reach.

One of the more personal threads running through the project is Mike Bamiloye's return to his original role as Isawuru. Damilola Bamiloye described the experience as deeply emotional, recalling that he was just four years old when he first watched his father inhabit the character, later spending his childhood reenacting scenes with his siblings. 

There's also a fitting irony to the timing: whereas Mike once relied on makeup to convincingly play a man decades older than himself, he is now 60, allowing him to step into Isawuru without artificial aging and bring a more natural weight to the performance.

Unlike the original, which was distributed through television and home video, this remake was built from the ground up with cinema audiences in mind.

 He noted that the production went through extensive script revisions and post-production work specifically to meet cinematic standards, resulting in a film driven by action and tension rather than long stretches of dialogue.

Produced by Mount Zion Films and centered on the enduring battle between spiritual darkness and Christian faith, Agbara Nla: The Return is set for a nationwide cinema release on October 1, 2026.

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