Niyi Akinmolayan is backing up his vision with cash. Days after unveiling OneTake, a new casting app designed to help actors and filmmakers find each other more efficiently, the ‘Lisabi’ director announced a ₦500,000 short film script challenge to put the app to the test.
“Let’s make a movie,” Akinmolayan said in a video posted to Instagram. “I’ve been thinking that one way to really show how powerful the OneTake app is – to do what we intended it to do – is to make a movie.”
The winning script will be funded by the filmmaker and turned into a professionally produced short film, with casting done entirely through the OneTake app. The filmmaker has given writers one week to submit a 10-page script featuring 10 characters under the working title ‘TEN’.
Akinmolayan also shared a step-by-step process for submitting scripts via NollywoodFilmmaker.com, where entries will be evaluated under his “Read My Script and Advise” service.
This experiment is more than a gimmick. During a live Instagram session with Nollywire, Akinmolayan detailed the philosophy behind OneTake: a platform that aims to eliminate casting scams, open up industry access, and help producers find talent based on performance—not popularity.
“Right now, I don’t know where to get good actors from,” he said. “This app will allow us to discover true talent… not just people with social media followers.”
Niyi Akinmolayan’s OneTake: A Fix for a Broken Casting System
OneTake works by allowing producers to create detailed casting calls—complete with age range, height, location, and specific traits. Actors who fit the criteria can then submit monologues via the app. Unlike open calls on social media, only those who meet the casting filters see the role, making the process targeted and less chaotic.
Akinmolayan shared that the idea was partly driven by his own frustration with Nollywood’s unreliable audition system, including a story of a young woman who was assaulted after attending a fake audition.
“That story haunted me,” he said. “And every actor has experienced something like this. We need to fix ourselves before we fix anything else in Nollywood.”
Already, over 500 actors have signed up on OneTake, including some from Ghana, Uganda, the UK, and the U.S.—a sign that the platform could scale beyond Nigeria.
What Happens After the Challenge?
After selecting a winning script for ‘TEN’, Akinmolayan plans to hand the project over to a team of well-known professionals—producer, director, and casting director—to bring the film to life, using OneTake for every casting decision. Every actor selected will be paid, with a plan to submit the film to festivals and give it a premiere.
This proof-of-concept project, Akinmolayan hopes, will convince other studios and producers—like Inkblot, EbonyLife, and Accelerate TV—to adopt OneTake for their productions.
“All my friends want me to use it first. And prove to them that it works,” he told Nollywire. “Once we do that, I believe they’ll come on board.”
There are also plans to activate university theatre departments across Nigeria and to pitch the platform to international players like Netflix and Disney, who Akinmolayan says are increasingly looking for fresh talent from Nigeria.
As he put it, “This is our revolution. This is how industries get transformed.”
