THE cameras were ready to roll, and just before the movie director, who had been monitoring the DOP’s frame could shout “Action”, two flashlights hit Bukky in the face. Reacting spontaneously to the shots, the veteran actress looked at the still photographer questionably. The crew burst into laughter. Then she said, rather softly, “these photographs that we don’t even get to see.”
The making of TunjiBamishigbin’s soap opera, The Valley Between, had dwelt on BukkyAjayi’s scenes for about 20 minutes before the still photographer showed up on location. Somehow, her presence had doused the tension of production.
If the elderly woman could endure the series of ‘takes’ and ‘re-takes’ on set, coupled with the occasional setbacks often experienced in film productions, why couldn’t any young vibrant actor?
BukkyAjayi managed her temperament so well in the midst of odds. It came to her effortlessly, having put in several decades on the job. As if to help the younger actors on set to learn the ropes, she’d passed jocular comments occasionally while also reacting playfully to the ‘mischief’ of the director. They all threw banters, shared jokes and laughed. Thus, scene after scene, the job was done.
Would she want to talk to us between shoots? Aren’t we going to be adding to her location stress? She took a cursory look at the The Nation’s complimentary card handed to her. She looked at the man standing before her, probably thinking, ‘first he was a still photographer, next he’s a journalist’. And then she said unenthusiastically: “I don’t need this publicity.
“This is not about you, mummy. What other form of publicity do you need? Sure, you have seen it all. This little chat, with your permission, will no doubt benefit the young ones. The aspiring actors and actresses, even the up comers who desire to study you like a book. On our part, we are only trying to create materials for them to support their dreams,” our correspondent was wooing her.
They were walking along the lounge to the expansive building where her next scene was about to happen. He carried her bag like one would a mother returning from the market.
Time was short, in-between studying her script and a little nap, the reporter reappeared like a naughty kid and she lowered her guard.
When and how did acting begin for this woman whose effort has traversed Nollywood to include a performance in an international flick entitled Critical Assignment?
It’s a long time ago and she could not remember exactly when. “I am an old woman now and I really I’m not good at remembering those dates again. But I do know that I started off in the ’60s and first as a broadcaster,” she said.
Knowing what parental disposition was towards acting in those days, what was her experience like? “Up till today, no parent wants their children to be an actor, except that today things are better off because of the money and publicity the profession have got to offer.”
Talking about how long she has been in the acting business and if her contemporaries are still in the profession, BukkyAjayi looked up at the interviewer as if to say, what’s this boy talking about? “Most of them are dead,” she said, and then on a second thought, she asked, “Do you know how old I am?”
“I was just going to ask you ma.”
“I am not going to tell you. Never ask a lady how old she is.”
“That brings us to Fela Kuti’s thoughts on the typical African woman, isn’t it?” Both laughed.
“Honestly, I am not going to tell you my age,” she said. “All I am going to tell you is that I am a grandmother. And recently, I have added another one; great grandmother.”
Indeed, the first product of her great grandmother status came from the marriage between her granddaughter, Omobolanle, and hip-hop star, MuyiwaOlofin (a.k.a. Jazzman Olofin), about nine years ago. Therefore, to appreciate BukkyAjayi’s age was not by the close knit population of grey strands on her head, but perhaps by understanding that her first son is about 61years.
The old lady who converted to Islam in the early 80s and chose the name ‘Zainab’ described herself as a real Lagosian. Apart from acting in the Guinness promotional/ sponsored movie, Critical Assignment, Zainab BukkyAjayi, who said it was her first time featuring in an international movie, recalled that unlike how the Nigerian producers have always treated artistes, her experience on the set of Critical Assignment, featuring Michael Power, made a lot of difference.
“For once in my life, I felt like a star because I was treated like one. I went round the country. I saw how a star is treated. I had my own caravan with my name on it, my own car with a driver who doubled as my security man. And on days when I was not working, the car was there to take me wherever I wanted to go. I had a lovely time, I enjoyed it,” she said with nostalgia.
On some of the ill treatment actors get from some film producers, she recalled with bitterness how a producer and his director refused to pay her for a job she did in February 2007.
Can you name names? Cutting the reporter short, she said: “I don’t mind. ABC and XYZ (not their real names). And you can quote me.”
In February of that year, BukkyAjayi was invited to take part in a movie in Abuja. The movie was produced and directed by Enugu-based ABC and XYZ respectively. The movie which also featured artistes like EuchariaAnunobi-Ekwu, Desmond Elliot and Nkiru Sylvanus saw the elderly actress paying her flight tickets to and from the Abuja location. She later accused them of deceiving her that payment had been credited to her account.
“ABC and XYZ think that because they are in Enugu nobody can touch them. But they forget that God can touch anybody where ever they are. If what anybody could think of doing to a woman of my age is to ‘419’, then let God be the judge. But I would like someone to help me ask them what I have done to them to deserve such ill treatment. I paid my flight ticket to Abuja and back, it is sad indeed but I give thanks to God because at least I am still alive.”
Although BukkyAjayi had reservations about the standard of some Nigerian movies, when asked to mention any Nigerian film she had taken part in and could give thumbs up to, she mentioned Dickson Iruegbu’sWomen’s Cot. According to her, what make this movie tick are the great cast, costume and the ‘Nigerianess’ of the script.
Tunde Kelani’sThunderbolt (Magun) was perceived by many as another great movie she’d done.Why wouldn’t she list that? Mama smiled and said that the movie couldn’t be regarded as a Nigerian movie. “It is an international standard movie even though it was shot by a Nigerian who knows what he is doing.” That settles it.
Now, talking about professionalism, has she thought of doing her own film? Her answer was a big No! According to her, she does not have the kind of money that would do a good movie. “I don’t want to say I am a perfectionist but I am near it and I cannot do anything short of standard.”
Our correspondent thought that this may also be the issue with other Nigerian directors who could not do quality movies due to lack of adequate funding, but the old actress differed, saying, “this is the kind of project that two or three production houses can come together to do. They know these things but they just would not do them.”
Her movie roles are often laced with humour. Could this mean that the producers identify this trait in her and would usually inject comic reliefs through her character? This may not be far from the fact, but as far as BukkyAjayi was concerned, “you can’t survive acting in this country without being humorous. One would just die.” This, she noted against the backdrop of location stress; even though she agreed that the humours must suit the character she’s playing.
In Thunderbolt (Magun), we saw that sarcastic inference she made about the libido potential of Guinness Stout. Soon after that movie, BukkyAjayi was in the Guinness sponsored/promotional movie, Critical Assignment.
Was this a mere coincidence or an extension of her ambassadorial role for the brand? She raised her head to the interviewer again and said, “Do you know that until now that you are mentioning it, I have never thought of the two being seemingly related. I’m sure the producers didn’t see it like that too. It’s pure coincidence.”
What about her experience with fans on the streets of Lagos like? “I dare not walk on the streets of Lagos unless I want to be mobbed,” she said. “Most of the time, I don’t do my shopping myself. I send people to do it for me.”
In spite of odds, does she see herself doing something else other than the movies? “At what age and time again?” she retorted. “I love what I am doing and that’s what I’m going to do till I die.”
She recalled that her love for the theatre started when she was a young girl. Then, her father used to take her to the cinemas and she often told him how much she wanted to be like the actresses. Unfortunately, he never lived to see her become an actress.She later travelled to study in England where she was for six years on a federal government scholarship. Returning to Nigeria after her education in 1965, she worked with the Nigerian Television Service as a presentation assistant in 1966 under the leadership of Dr. Christopher Kolade.
Afterwards, she became a presenter and then a news caster. She presented a couple of children’s programmes and Nigerian Sketches, a programme which was all about Nigerian culture, produced by the late DiranAjijedidun. She was transferred to Port Harcourt and later back to Lagos, and it was at that time she started her acting career.
Bukky Zainab Ajayi had to her credit such television dramas and movies like: The Village Headmaster, Checkmate, Women’s Cot, Thunderbolt, My Best Friend, Worst Marriage, Bridgestone, Dead End, Indecent Girls, Final Whistle, Oduduwa, andThe Kingmaker, among others. She will be sorely missed.
