The pressure at the heart of Pushing 30 is familiar. Young Nigerians are expected to pursue their dreams, build careers or businesses, find love and settle down, often in a country that makes each task more difficult than it should be.
Mayowa Mula began developing Pushing 30 in 2022, shortly after producing and acting in the short film The Little Things. What started as a story about friends throwing a birthday party grew alongside him, absorbing anxieties he and his friends faced as they approached 30 in Lagos.
Making the film took more than developing the story. Mula invested income from his radio and other work, pitched for funding for two years, brought together private investors and partners, and adjusted the production scale without abandoning its central idea.
Written by Mannie Oiseomaye and directed by Orobosa Ikponmwen, the completed ensemble dramedy premieres on Africa Magic Showcase on October 18, 2026.
In this interview with OYA Magazine, Mula discusses developing the story, financing and producing independently, assembling a nine-person principal cast and what he hopes to build with Mula Productions.
This interview has been edited and condensed for clarity.
You first conceived Pushing 30 in 2022. Why did the expectations attached to turning 30 feel worth exploring?
Pushing 30 was inspired by the real anxiety many of us feel as we approach 30. The first idea came to me in 2022. It was initially a story about a group of friends throwing a birthday party, but it began to change as I got older and found myself in that exact headspace where society tells you that by 30, you should have everything figured out: career, marriage, money and purpose.
I wanted to explore it because people rarely talk about how funny and painful that pressure can be at the same time. In Lagos especially, turning 30 comes with unsolicited audits from family, friends and even your own friend group.
The film asks: what if your friends are also struggling, but everyone is pretending to have it perfect?
That’s the core of the film: a tight-knit group of friends navigating friendship, love, ambition and the societal pressure to marry.
How did the story change as you developed it with Mannie Oiseomaye?
Some of the character names changed, first of all.
The more we worked on the story, the more we fleshed out the characters. Compared to the very first idea and draft, you now have characters with arcs that you are invested in, not just one main character.
When Mannie came on board, we expanded the story to follow an entire friend group. It became an ensemble dramedy centred on Osaze, a 30-year-old tech founder whose birthday brunch brings old issues to the surface. Through the people around him, we see how everyone is performing perfection.
The original idea did not focus as strongly on the anxiety of getting older or the difficulties young people face while surviving and becoming adults in Lagos. Those became important parts of the film as it developed.
You spent about two years trying to secure funding. What made you keep going instead of putting the film aside?
I started developing Pushing 30 shortly after The Little Things in 2022. As the years passed, I was approaching 30 myself and repeatedly having the same conversations with my friends in Lagos. Everyone was anxious about work, relationships, family pressure, japa and rent. It felt too real to abandon.
The Little Things was a contained story about a dysfunctional couple returning home after a party. With Pushing 30, I wanted to tell a bigger and more honest story about our generation.
Every time a funding door closed, someone who had read the script would call me and say, “This is my life.” That kept me going. Putting the project aside would have felt like abandoning that conversation.
You self-financed the early development. How did you eventually finance the film, and what adjustments did you make without losing its core?
I self-financed the early development and continued putting my own money into the project afterwards. It came from my radio work and other jobs. We pitched the project for two years.
We eventually made it through a combination of private investors who believed in the story, strategic partnerships and individual contributions. It was not one large cheque.
Financing an ensemble film independently in this market is difficult. We remained committed through economic shifts, rising production costs and long gaps between funding and production. I also had to demonstrate that a story about millennials and Gen Zs discussing real life over wine and dinner parties could be witty and commercially viable.
The compromise wasn’t in the story, but in the scale. We had to be disciplined. We rewrote for a smaller budget and tighter shooting schedule, and we found smarter ways to work.
Producing taught me that protecting a film’s core sometimes requires flexibility in execution. We did not change what Pushing 30 was about. We found a leaner way to tell the story truthfully.
How difficult was it to cast and coordinate nine principal actors while preserving the chemistry the story required?
Finding actors who could embody the characters, look the part and have convincing chemistry with one another was demanding, but we struck gold with the people who came on board.
It was a nine-person principal cast, and everyone had a busy schedule. Bringing them together and keeping the team intact required considerable coordination.
Completion was not only about finding the right cast. We also needed the right crew and had to carry the production through post-production to Africa Magic’s technical standard. The entire process took longer than we initially planned.
Looking back at the journey from The Little Things to Pushing 30, what have you learned about yourself and about independent production in Nigeria?
The Little Things taught me that I could do it. Pushing 30 taught me what “doing it” actually costs.
The Little Things was a short film that I produced and acted in. It taught me how to stretch a tiny budget and lead a small team, but a feature is a different animal.
I have learned that I am stubborn in a useful way. Independent production in Nigeria requires that. You have to be the creative, accountant, therapist and logistics person at the same time. There is no dependable infrastructure for independent film financing here, so you have to build your own system of trust.
I have also learned patience. Being independent in Nigeria means you cannot wait for perfect conditions. You have to make the film with what you have, without letting it look limited by what you have. That is the real skill.
Distribution and remuneration remain major problems in the industry, and dealing with them has also taught me patience.
How did Africa Magic become the home for Pushing 30?
Africa Magic was always the dream home because they understand this audience. Pushing 30 is a contemporary Nigerian urban story about relationships and friendship, exactly the kind of authentic African story Africa Magic Showcase has championed.
The partnership came together after the team saw the final cut and connected with its tone. It is witty, heartfelt and very real.
The film premieres on October 18, 2026, at 8 p.m. on Africa Magic Showcase via DStv and GOtv. After the premiere, Africa Magic will determine the repeat broadcast slots on its channels. Details of any further platform or streaming release have not been announced.
What are you trying to build with Mula Productions beyond Pushing 30?
I am not trying to build only a company that makes films. I want Mula Productions to become a home for a particular kind of Nigerian story.
I want to tell grounded, character-driven stories about young Nigerians, not caricatures. I am interested in the in-betweeners: people in their twenties and thirties trying to manage love, ambition, family, faith and Lagos.
I want to make stories that feel as intimate as The Little Things but carry the cultural weight of Pushing 30.
Beyond this film, the goal is to build a slate of shorts, features and eventually series that can travel internationally while remaining rooted here. There is also a dream of creating a shared universe of films with sequels and spin-offs.
Above everything else, I want Mula Productions to be known for quality and honesty.
Pushing 30 Synopsis
A 30th birthday bash reunites a tight-knit group of friends, but the festivities quickly turn into a reckoning with the sobering realisation that none of them has it all figured out.
Starring Deji Osikoya, Darasimi Ogbetah, Mayowa Mula, Kanaga Emmanuel Eme, Kanyin Eros, Uzor Daniel, Sharon Rotimi, Doris Okorie and Floyd Igbo.
Genre & Runtime
Drama Comedy | 84.7 minutes
