Nigerian Actor, Who Accused Producers of His Malayalam Film of Racism, Now Says Issue Settled

Kozhikode: Nigerian actor Samuel Abiola Robinson who had recently alleged that he has been racially discriminated against by producers for his recent film ‘Sudani from Nigeria’ has now said the issue has been settled.

He said that the makers of the film has approached him and compensated him with a reasonable amount of money.

Robinson, last week, took to Facebook alleging he had been underpaid by the filmmakers and remunerations promised was not paid despite the movie getting a good box office response.

“I have been contacted by the producers of Sudani from Nigeria to settle the issue of unfair wages I put up few days ago. To settle this, I have received confirmation receipt of payment for reasonable sum as salary for my work,” Robinson posted on Facebook.

Robinson, who deleted all his earlier Facebook posts on the issue, said he would like apologise to the people of Kerala for his remarks of racism.

“I would like to apologize to any person from Kerala who was offended by my previous statements. As this particular case is now confirmed to not be racial discrimination, I want to state that there is almost completely no racism in Kerala and I believe Kerala is one of the friendliest places in Asia for an African to visit,” he said.

He also thanked Kerala finance minister Thomas Isaac who had raised his case and extended his support the actor.

“I want to specially thank Dr TM Thomas Isaac Sir – The Finance Minister of Kerala for his support to resolve this issue,” he wrote.

“I believe that I was a victim of racial discrimination while in Kerala. It was nothing violent or directly in my face but for my role in Sudani from Nigeria, the producers offered me far less money than the Indian actors who are not half as popular or accomplished as I am," Samuel had written on Facebook.

"I am of the opinion that this happened purely because of my skin colour and the assumption that all Africans are poor and don't know the value of money," Samuel had alleged on the Facebook post which has now been deleted.

Directed by debutant Zakariya, Sudani from Nigeria is a movie which surrounds the North Kerala district Malappuram which is known for its football fanaticism.

The Malayalam movie stars Robinson as Samuel, a football player and Soubin Shahir plays the role of Samuel’s manager. The film received a good response from both critics and audience alike is produced by Happy Hours Entertainment.