Vatiswa Ndara has a solution to ‘lily white’ Oscars: Tyler Perry, start your own awards

10 January 2020 - 12:00
By Kyle Zeeman
Vatiswa Ndara has called on Tyler Perry to take the white out of awards in the movie and television industries.
Image: Gallo Images / Frennie Shivambu Vatiswa Ndara has called on Tyler Perry to take the white out of awards in the movie and television industries.

Veteran actress Vatiswa Ndara has urged global movie and TV mogul Tyler Perry to start his own awards show.

The call comes after allegations that major international award shows like the Baftas, Oscars and Golden Globes were “lily white”.

Vatiswa said the opportunity was there for Tyler to start his own thing, and even suggested he call it “The Tylers”.

“You've come this far, you might as well go all the way,” she told Tyler in a Tweet this week.

Tyler has yet to respond to the suggestion, but the idea got a lot of approval from Vatiswa's followers who believe it would also help the SA movie industry get exposure on the global stage.

The issue of diversity in nominations has come into the spotlight over the last decade under the social media hashtag #OscarsSoWhite. The trend was created in response to no person of colour being nominated in any of the lead  or supporting actor categories at the Oscars.

Since 2001 the BET Awards celebrated black Americans and other American minorities in music, acting and sports.