Star actor, Saheed Balogun, is still very much busy with what he loves to do most- producing movies. The producer cum actor, just last December, dropped his latest work Alami Ayemi (My Dream My Life). In this interview with DANIEL POPOOLA, Saidi, hinted that he has finished work on yet another movie. He also talked about his experience on marriage, divorce and other sundry issues. Excerpts:
WHAT have you been to up? We are still in the business of producing movies. After Eti-Keta, I’ve done Alami-Ayemi, which I released last December. The movie centres on a child’s dream. Every child has a dream of becoming somebody in life. But the kind of training we give our children can actually make or mar the dream. Some parents even abandon their children. Parents can ruin their children’s future with the kind of training we give to them. We need to nurture our kids. The training you give a child can make him or her become a great leader of tomorrow. So that is the message we are trying to pass across in the movie.
What inspired the movie?
Ayemi means my life. I just discovered that you cannot blame most problems on the person suffering from such problems. The guy who found his way to the top, and was accused of embezzling funds, have you found out how he was brought up? Do you know who he was before he came into power? What are those things parents should have done to help that kind of child to become a better person? That is the picture we are trying to paint in this movie.
It is a simple Yoruba movie. Alami-Ayemi is just to tell the way our future can be ruined. We should please reshape it now and we should believe that the kids who are coming up have a lot to contribute to the society. We should watch the way we talk to them. The big guy goes to the bank, collects loan to buy a car and nobody questions him. There are paupers out there struggling to get themselves educated, yet there is no one to help them.
It seems there’s a breath of fresh air in the entertainment industry…
I am so happy now that things are changing. For a long time, the international media have portrayed us in bad light. When they want to shoot Nigerian film, you will see them standing by the bush, they will leave the beautiful part in Ikeja, Victoria Island, Abuja. All this is in a bid to portray us in bad light. If that is what they want to continue doing, we are not happy. Creativity is being killed. Abroad, if you spend $200million on a movie, if you make $100million in a cinema, you will make $300million in your sales.
But in the cinema in Nigeria, once you cannot make your money in the cinema, you are dead, because those law makers who have been there for more than 12 years, they have not passed a single law on piracy. Instead, they are busy jumping from one place to another, busy looking for money that was stolen. The same set of people who stole money are looking for people to arrest. I’m looking forward to the day the dream to eradicate piracy will come through. As you can see, they have not passed any law on piracy.
Are you saying that there is no law against piracy?
If you steal my movie now, it is a minor offence. Lagos State and Ondo State governments are trying to do something about it. There is a law in Lagos State that if you are caught in the act, you will pay a sum of fifty thousand naira. In Ondo State, if you are caught selling film, you will be fined. When I went to the judge during the period I was talking to Lagos State Government, he said to me that, ‘Saidi, I can go on N10 million fine because I respect people’s intellectual properties.’
But I wonder what our law makers are doing on this issue. We go through a lot to produce our movies and instead of smiling to the banks, some people who think they are above the law are the ones smiling to the banks. Why do we have lawmakers in this country? We didn’t elect the lawmakers to go and be dancing Palongo or even travelling from one nation to another. I don’t blame most of them, how can somebody who cannot manage his family, a person involved in the controversy of na mi get bele, no bi you lead a society? Moving with somebody’s wife, having extra marital affair with another woman is not a quality of a leader. Do I blame them? The problem lies with entertainers. We do a lot of rubbish. There are three categories of people who have case before God- the entertainer, the politicians and pastors.
Are you saying you didn’t smile to the bank after Eti-Keta?
We thank GOD. Eti-Keta did well, but the pirates did theirs too. Truth is I didn’t make money from the movie the way people thought I did. But I thank God for Governor Mimiko, he was the one who made me smile. I’m a straight forward person. I don’t need to lie to the public in order to impress them. If I lie that I made N200 million and the same car I’ve being driving is still the same car I use, won’t you ask me questions? If I made so much money, I should change my car. You see, the entertainment industry will grow if the lawmakers should make the right laws.
Any entertainer campaigning for lawmakers should be executed. You can campaign for governors, chairmen of councils, even councillors. But those people that refuse to pass laws must not be voted for. Truth is they are not the culprits. The real culprits are those who vote them into office. He who steals is worse than those who receive it from them. If you don’t vote for them or encourage them, they will go back.
How would you rate the entertainment industry?
I will say that we are improving, at least from 10 percent to 13 percent. So you can see that we are improving.
What is the solution to piracy?
Artistes in Nigeria have been to Mimiko’s office and when we got there, he was just smiling, and some people challenged him on why he was smiling. And he said, ‘you came to me and you are talking about piracy, I am only a State governor, go to Abuja and talk to them.
I cannot attend to you as a politician. You think am not bad? The lawmakers are ready for you guys. They are good people, may be you have not stood up to them like you are standing up to me.’ I know that Fashola too is good, but we cannot do anything in Lagos, so why are we troubling Fashola and Mimiko? Instead, we should face the federal lawmakers. When they pass the right law, the standard of everything will improve.
Why do most Yoruba actors claim they are not part of Nollywood?
Like I always tell you, I don’t like the name Nollyhood because it makes us look like second fiddle. There are people who have been doing films before the young generation of producers came in and coined Nollywood, which, of course, is gotten from Hollywood. I don’t want to go into that. But for me, when the right law is passed, we will know the boys from the men. When you get to Idumota, you will see a lot of movies that were produced within two weeks.
You will see 36 films in two weeks, 70 films in two weeks. When you get abroad, you will see a producer come out with a single film and he will make it big. Thank God for African Magic, otherwise, some guys producing films would not have been known. The rebranding they are shouting in Abuja, let them rebrand their law first and they will see me portraying Nigeria well. Tade Ogidan, who took all of us to London, spent millions. Is he smiling now? Go and ask. That is what I’m saying that you kill people’s dream by not passing the right laws. You don’t see Tade Ogidan producing many movies. The legends are getting tired.
With all what you have stated, can stage drama be the alternative?
Stage is good, but by the time we have so many casts, how much do you want to pay them. You don’t attempt to solve a problem from the top. First check its root cause. Let every entertainer in Nigeria be under one umbrella so that we can create a single name. Let us know what to do and what not to do.
There are new faces in the industry. What does it portend?
The advice I have for the new entrants into the industry is that they should learn and know the new trend and try to follow it. I did a movie recently, You or I. I got some white people who speak Yoruba fluently, that is the movie for 2013. Everybody in the movie is white, except me. There are always new things to learn if you want to learn. For up-and-coming, they should be serious and not see acting as a short-cut to fame.
What should we expect from your You and I?
You and I is a story that centres on why marriages crash. It’s a marital story that seeks to solve questions bordering on why marriages crash. Some of the questions that will be emanating from the story include who is to blame when a marriage crashes? Are the two parties involved or the people surrounding them that are to blame? I have learnt a lot about marriage, so much that I know that the reason why a white woman says it is over is the same reason why a black woman marriage fails. But it is the presentation that differs.
In Africa, if the black man wants to leave his wife, the wife will go and call the members of the family, thereby prolonging the doom’s day. It may be prolonged, but it will eventually happen. But in the white man’s case, it doesn’t take a long process. The same way a white woman feels jealous, is the same way the black woman feels jealous. It is the presentation that differs. When a white woman is displeased with her marriage, she calls it quit. But a black woman, when she’s displeased with her marriage she keeps going round from pillar to post. But the point is she will eventually leave if she is no longer happy with the marriage. This is what You and I is all about.
