September 01, (THEWILL) – Bolanle Austen-Peters has joined other movie producers, such as Kunle Afolayan and Ibrahim Chatta, that own film villages in Nigeria. Both Afolayan and Chatta’s film villages, Kunle Afolayan Productions (KAP) film village and resort and Africhatta Film Village, built on over 70 acres of land with facilities like horse riding and other recreational activities, are both located in Oyo State.
The Austen-Peters Film Village, a 10,000-acre swathe of land and rolling hills, is in Epe, Lagos State. The producer’s latest movie, House of GA’A, was shot at the film village. Mrs Austen-Peters has announced that the facility is open for commercial purposes, including recreation and movie productions.
Mrs Bolanle Austen-Peter, daughter of foremost legal luminary, Chief Afe Babalola, is a lawyer turned entertainment mogul. She also holds a Masters from the London School of Economics. After working as a lawyer in the 1990s, first in her father’s chambers, Afe Babalola & Co and later at the United Nations High Commissions for Refugees in Switzerland, she founded Terra Kulture, which is fully involved in promoting Nigeria’s art and culture through exhibitions, indigenous restaurant and storytelling through its award-winning plays and movies.
Through BAP Productions, Austen-Peters has produced stage musicals like ‘Saro,’ ‘Waka,’ ‘Fela & The Kalakuta Queens,’ ‘Death and the King’s Horseman,’ among others. She has also directed feature films such as ‘The Bling Lagosians,’ ‘Man Of God,’ ‘Collision Course’ and ‘Funmilayo: The lioness of Lisabi.’
In 2020, she was one of four women selected for a prestigious fellowship programme of the Legatum Centre for Development and Entrepreneurship of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Boston, USA, for the Legatum Foundry Fellowship, a transformative experience for accomplished entrepreneurs who are at an inflection point between scaling an innovation-driven company and transitioning into a role as an entrepreneurial leader catalysing systems change and inclusive economic growth across the African continent.
