Jim Iyke: How I staged fight with Uche Maduagwu to promote ‘Bad Comments’

Jim Iyke, Nigerian filmmaker, says he staged his confrontation with Uche Maduagwu, the self-acclaimed actor, to promote ‘Bad Comments’, his 2021 movie.

In August last year, Iyke had engaged Maduagwu in a heated fight at an undisclosed studio in Lagos.

The confrontation had come after Maduagwu questioned Iyke’s source of wealth in a social media post.

The development had stirred a plethora of mixed reactions at the time, with many Nigerians calling out Maduagwu.

But in an interview with Chude Jideonwo, Iyke revealed that he orchestrated the confrontation and paid Maduagwu to play along.

“It was orchestrated, I can say it now. I’ve given you two scripts. Do I look like the kind of person that just before the introduction of one of the most important works in my entire career would go and jeopardize it with that? No, I’m too strategic,” he said.

“I called the man (Maduagwu), we had an understanding, I paid very well for it, rolled out the script, called Moses in, we shot it and we’re about to release the ending of it. I’m not stupid. I will never make that kind of mistake.”

The 45-year-old said he adopted the measure as a strategy to promote the movie after spending over N20 million without getting the desired result.

“We buried over N20m in the promotion of that film and people were still viewing it with a certain degree of cynicism. Immediately there was a scandal, it caught fire,” he added.

The film star also said the initiative was also to prove that he is capable of pulling any stunt.

“I wanted to tell them to paint the picture of what it was like in the social media ecosystem. I can orchestrate anything and you will perceive it. It’s about perception,” he added.

‘Iyke paid me paid N3.6 million’ — Maduagwu

Confirming what Iyke said, Maduagwu revealed that he was paid the sum of N3.6 million to execute the task.

In an Instagram post, he also said Iyke gave him an additional N1.2 million after the initiative went viral.