Fast-rising Nollywood actor, Abidoun Adebanjo, whose passion and zeal for acting is burning fiercely at the moment can be described as one of the hottest in the industry at the moment.
The handsome actor is one that is multi-talented; he acts so well as much as he sings too.
In an interview with Saharaweekly magazine, he revealed to us how the industry journey has been, the challenges, his role model and many more.
Exceprts below:
Q – My name is Osho Oluwatosin, Can we meet you sir?
R – My names are Abiodun Adebanjo Olorunjuwonloa, I’m an actor.
Q – Can you tell us more about your career?
R – That’s a long story. It’s been very tough and wonderful. So far, I thank God. This is y 6th year in the industry and I’ve been in a lot of movies, I’ve been to all angles in theatre, I’ve sang, I’ve danced, I’ve done stage plays, I’ve done modeling, anything in theatre, I’ve done it.
Q – How has it been since you started?
R – Well, it wasn’t so easy because in our industry especially this part of our industry which is the Yoruba part, it’s not been easy and when you are not coming In to produce, you just want to start from the bottom, you have to be very strong, vigilant, hard-working, and very humble and prayerful, that’s it. I’ve actually served a lot of people but the person I actually call my boss is Akin Lewis. I call him my daddy. If anyone asks me, he’ll say I’m his son. I call him my boss because he was the one that believed in me and launched me into the industry.
Q – What are you working on presently?
R – Like I said, I’m going into music very soon. I’ve been singing. I’m actually working on releasing 4 tracks at a go and working on my first movie which is going to be a bomb. It’s going to b a multi-million naira movie and I’m planning a concert which will be coming by December. I’ll be inviting some musicians, that is it for now.
Q – Which movie would you say pushed you to timelight?
R – Actually, the movie that made people know me is Omo Oshodi. I received a lot of calls, commendation, lot of jobs started coming in. I’ve been in movies likle Ejo mi ko, Omi, Old soldier, lot of movies.
Q – Can you tell us about the movie you want to produce?
R – Wao! You want me to start saying my secret (laughs). The fact is that my movie will be called ‘Gbogbo Wa Lole’. I’m not supposed to be disclosing all this, a lot of people will be loving that title. It’s registered though so nobody can steal it. The title is Gbogbo Wa Lole or can you deny not being a thief?(Laughs)
Q – Over the years, Piracy has been a major complain in the industry, how does piracy affect you?
R – Ahh, that is a big issue. The fact is piracy, I call them vampires. They are blood suckers. Assuming we have legalized gun in Nigeria, I would have shot them because they are killers too. It hasn’t been easy. We actually did an anti-piracy work with the likes of Kunle Afolayan, Adebayo Salami, Yemi Solade, Bimbo Thomas, a lot of stars actually came out. We had a rally from Ikeja Underbridge to Governor’s office to express our plight. I just urge the government to do something about it. I expect them to consider piracy as a murder case, I want the government to consider it as that because they are killing us, you need to know the stress we are actually passing through just to bring out something sensible and at the end of the day, it will be pirated. Some movies even get pirated before it is released. It’s killing, I’m being sincere.
Q – You are an actor that is good looking, how do you handle your female fans?
R – Arrgh!! I have a lot of people I see as a mentor especially Akin-Lewis, I’ve learnt a lot of things from him so I do it the way my mentors did it. It’s not been easy, nobody is perfect but I learnt a lot of things from him. I put God first in everything I do, I handle everything that comes my way Godly though it hasn’t been easy. Even when you are not good looking and you are an actor or a celebrity, females will keep coming.
Q – When did you get the urge to become an actor?
R – I’ve been acting since I was 6 years. I love to make people smile. I love it when I’m beside you and I’m able to bring out your 32 set of teeth. I started acting when I was in church then, it was just a stage play and I was asked to act as a prodigal son. It was like an end of the year party and I did it perfectly though I was very stubborn then. I was always called upon in everything that happens in church then so when I grew up, sometimes I would run from lessons and pretend to be sick just to attend rehearsals so I started deriving happiness from it. It started making me happy and it’s what I love. If you want to kill me, just ask me to stop acting, I don’t think I can last a month.
Q – Were your parents supportive?
R – At a point, they weren’t even till now but the fact is when your parents start seeing you in movies and their friends are like ‘See your son, he’s now a big boy oo’, even when they are not supportive, but you are together and they start seeing your movies on Africa Magic or TV stations, at the end of the day, they got laughing at your character in the movie and they were completely lost. It got to a time that they weren’t seeing me as Biodun again, they started calling me by the character I acted so it hasn’t been easy, but we thank God