Veteran actor and AMVCA 2014 nominee, Bimbo Manuel speaks with GBOYEGA ALAKA on the secrets of his youthful looks, Nollywood, its new generation of players and Bimbo/Sola Connect, which he co-hosts with Sola Salako on LTV.
SMOOTH and suave Bimbo Manuel scores a high any day in the Nigeria’s television and movies industry. His rich resume spans about three decades and includes exploits as an actor, producer, director, voice-over artist and presenter. Even at 56, Manuel already annexed a spot for himself as an industry veteran, except that there still seems to be so much ‘fight’ in him. He caught the eyes of the viewing public with his stellar performances in Checkmate and Ripples – two household television soaps of the late 1980s and early 1990s, and also Tade Ogidan’s movie, Hostages (1996), which was later serialised on television. Manuel has also featured in a good number of Nollywood movies, including The kingmaker (2002), Sitanda (2006), Tango with me (2012) and most recently, Torn, produced and directed by Moses Inwang. His performance in Torn, as a psychoanalyst also got him a nomination in the Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards (AMVCA) Best Support Actor category for works done in 2013, underlining yet again his huge acting talent.
Television viewers will also recognise him more as the very confident and sassy male co-anchor of the Lagos Television (LTV) Saturday morning magazine show, Bimbo/Sola Connect, who refuses to be intimidated by a somewhat ‘overbearing’ co-host, Sola Salako.
Aside the TV talk show, Manuel, however, seems to star in fewer films than his contemporaries. Naturally, this turned out a major high point of our discussion as we took a ride with him in between some studio works on a hot afternoon in Lagos. For an actor of his repute, we simply sought to know why his appearances seem to be so few and far between.
Manuel, however, says it is all about being more focused on issues than money and the fact that the things that we stand for have to endure and outlive us. “To appear in every film one gets invited to will seem to suggest that one is desperate for money.”
He also says it’s a deliberate strategy “to be fresh in the consciousness of not just the directors and producers, but also the viewing public.”
What about the secret of his youthful look? We asked. Safe for his white beard, Manuel would very easily pass for a man in his early 40s. But Manuel says it’s all about mindset and approach to life. “I’m an optimist. I also believe very firmly that age is in the mind. You’re as old as you think you are.”
He also does not think about age, when relating with people, whether young or old.
Manuel also has some very strong views about Nigeria’s film industry, Nollywood. First he quells the opinion in a certain interview that seems to portray him as an incurable optimist of the industry, saying “I may have been misquoted.”
“Although I do not do a lot of press, people who know me, know that I hold these views, especially about the things we’re not doing right or that we’re not doing at all. It may not have made me very popular amongst the Nollywood politicians, but I know that some of them also view me with respect because they know that whatever I say is not borne out of envy for anyone.”
Having said that, Manuel yet again expresses some optimism about the industry. He is a bit unclear about this optimism, saying it may not be limited to the film industry alone. “It is inclusive of general entertainment, broadcast and all that. And that optimism is born out of what we see in the industry, where young people who are proving to us that indeed some of those things that we were afraid to attempt, do or say, can indeed be done. “
These young people, he says, are in the vanguard of the growth and regeneration of the industry and are the ones really making the films and creating the shows that are going to the cinemas and making waves across Africa and the world. “They’re the ones repositioning the entertainment and movies industry of Nigeria on the global map and showing that Nigeria can indeed compete fairly on the global stage. So when they talk about Nigeria in the context of such projects, it is these people they are referring to. The likes of Kunle Afolayan, OC Ukeje, Lala Akindoju, Uti; truly young people, who’re very vibrant and are showing vision. They get trained in modern art, which for me is very key.”
He, however, expresses doubts as to whether these new people truly desire to be addressed as Nollywood, having heard expressions like New Nollywood in some circles.
We also took him up on the tendency of Nigeria to play second fiddle at major African movies awards. The recent Africa Magic Viewers Choice Awards (AMVCA), where the major awards were again carted away by countries like Kenya and Ghana, leaving Nigeria to again settle for individual awards is another case in point.
“It is an extension of what we’ve been saying,” he began. “The fact that Nigerian films even get nominated for these awards is a positive statement, because there was a time, when we were never even considered for nomination – because of the kind of films we were making.”
The fact that we’re now getting nominations therefore shows that there is more professionalism and the standards have indeed gone up. But again, he insists that the industry needs to generally grow and dedicate more energy to making quality films, as against just making huge volumes of films for the sake of it.
As for those countries that seem to leave Nigeria eating dust, Bimbo Manuel says he will not join in the discussion that seems to suggest some kind of conspiracy. “If they win so regularly, it just shows that they are better in that which they do. We won individual awards, but you will also notice that those awards were generally in the areas where votes were counted by the public. The fact that we have the population on our side means that we will win anywhere and any day over anyone on the continent, when it is public vote-related.”
He also does not think that Nigeria’s limitation is solely about budget. In his opinion, “a producer could carry a hundred million dollars into a film and still come to nothing if he does not deploy all the production values correctly. Conversely, a producer could have a lot of money and yet decide on a small budget project, know what he wants, insist on what he wants by deploying the proper values, and come out a winner.” Therefore, money may count, but he thinks that attitude as a major factor has to change.
The fact that Nigerian films still struggle to reenact convincing fire and accident scenes also show that we have not mastered stunts, which Manuel says is a key ingredient in film-making. “It means that we have not quite mastered the art and techniques of cinematography. And if these form a part of the judgment of what a good film is, it means we failed. That’s not money; that is technique. That is education.”
Away from Nollywood, Bimbo Manuel has also transited overtime from a radio presenter in the old Ogun State Broadcasting Corporation, to become an all-rounder with commendable skills in voice-over, acting, TV and movie production/ directing, TV presenting and writing. Would this be a case of natural endowment or deliberate skills acquisition? We inquired.
“It was not anything deliberate. I started out as a radio presenter; and because of that, I learnt to do voice-overs. I trained as a director in school remember, I read Theatre Arts. Acting was therefore a part of my classes. But to produce, I learnt; to write, I learnt. And that was because I didn’t want to be playing in every acting job I was offered, because as an actor you could burn out very easily.” He explained.
So he learnt the different skills just so he could diversify, and earn money doing other things aside acting. He concedes though that appearing in fewer films has its downsides, as an artist could easily get out of the consciousness of his fans. “But again, it’s a choice. You could choose to be popular or to be respected. I chose to be a respected actor.”
On his AMVCA nomination
“I’d like to establish that I was glad to be nominated, although it was not my intention to play for an award nomination. To win would definitely have been a fantastic addition to my chest of awards, but I’ll confess here that I didn’t bother to get anyone to vote for me because it was satisfying enough that fellow professionals deemed the work I did good enough to stand amongst that cast of excellent actors. I’d also said to myself that any of the other guys on that list who won, would be deserving of it. You have Chris Atto on the list; and of course Desmond Eliot, who eventually won.
On Bimbo/Sola Connect
The Bimbo/Sola Connect show is one show that is very dear to him, especially because he never had enough opportunity to do consistent broadcasting, since leaving OGBC. He was therefore glad when the opportunity came, courtesy of Lekan Ogunbanwo, the then permanent secretary of Lagos Television, who was looking to rejuvenate the once popular station. It also necessitated his first meeting with the co-anchor, Sola Salako.
“Even the name, Bimbo/Sola Connect was Ogunbanwo’s creation, as it was he who noticed how quickly they both gelled during that first meeting and came up with it.
He complements Salako the harmony on the show, saying “She is a more vocal and more communicative person. “Even the logo, which has our backs to each other, is deliberately conceived to emphasise the conflicts in our characters.” Manuel concluded
