What I tell people who say Shanty Town is ‘all nonsense, no lesson’ – Ini Edo

Nollywood actress cum producer of Nigerian Netflix series, Shanty Town, Ini Edo has revealed what she tells people who say the movie is nonsense and passes no lesson.

While Shanty Town is still the talk of the town, one critique that has trailed the show since its premiere is the overly raunchy nude scenes and some claims that the film delivers no lesson.

During the premiere of the show, producers of the show Chichi Nworah and Ini Edo opened up about why exactly they picked this script, and the lesson of the show gives.

When asked what inspired the show, Ini Edo said:

“What inspired it was first of all the drive to tell Nollywood stories, our own stories, in the way I thought it should be told. That was one of the inspirations I had.”

Chichi Nworah said:

“When I got the concept for Shanty Town, it was for us to talk about the ill things happening in society. The negative things happening in society. The things that people are not talking about. The negative things that are happening in the slums: organ harvesting, human trafficking, and all those other things that are people are not really paying attention to.

That is the concept. We wanted to highlight this underbelly for people to know what we are passing through in the society and we want it to stop. We want women to have freedom, to be able to live their lives.”

About her response to those who say the show is ‘all nonsense, no lesson’ and why they chose that particular script, Ini Edo said:

“Why this script? Why this script is just that we realized that there is a need to tell this story.

It was something happening in the society whereby nobody was talking about. About women, slave trade, the kind of businesses that go on behind the scenes. Prostitution is really big all over the world. But whereby people in authority are thriving off of this industry. One of the things that we needed to bring to light.

The fact that women, it had a lot to do with women, and with kids. And how much more they should be protected and what they are actually going through. And the fact that there is a part of this world where some of us don’t get to experience. But it is actually happening. So I needed people who are sitting up there who are probably unaware that some things like this are going on in our society to know that we need to fix it.”