Tag: October 1

The success so far recorded by October 1, a new film by Kunle Afolayan, has not just shone the spotlight on him. It has also got not a few thinking about what makes the larger Ade Afolayan showbiz family tick, writes OLUKOREDE YISHAU

The viewers scream. The confines of the Film House Cinema on Adeniran Ogunsanya Street, Surulere, Lagos Mainland, vibrate. The unexpected has just happened. A prince – and the hero of the movie they are watching – has just turned out to be the beast who has been causing commotion in the land. No, not him, a few scream.

“Western education is evil,” a punch line from Koya, the supporting actor, a boy molested at 14 by a revered Reverend, also gets the viewers thinking of Boko Haram. The climax of October 1, Kunle Afolayan’s latest movie – and his most ambitious to date – gives the impression that, like wine, he matures with time. His second movie, Figurine, in the eyes of critics, was better than his first, Irapada. Figurine has actually led to a critical book of essays edited by his academic brother, Dr Adeshina Afolayan. Not a few consider his third, Phone Swap, a thriller of no mean value.

And now October 1, his first period film, appears to have made him loom large in the consciousness of fans home and abroad. It is almost like he is the kid to do business with when it comes to doing quality movies. At least three top companies, including Oando Plc, requested for private screenings. Its distributor, Filmhouse, projects that the film would rake in $1 million  from cinema shows alone.

But who is this Kunle Afolayan that is tantalising the public with his fantastic creative skills? He is one of four theatre-inclined siblings of a late movie icon who ruled the Nigerian film-making world of the 60s, 70s and 80s. His fans knew him as Ade Love, but his given name was Adeyemi Josiah Afolayan. Aside Kunle, the other Afolayan children making waves in Nollywood are: Moji, who is Ibadan-based and married to popular Yoruba actor, Razaq Olayiwola (alias Ojopagogo); Aremu, a Lagos actor, producer and director; and the last is Gabriel, who Kunle has had cause to confess that he respects his acting prowess. Gabriel’s credit goes beyond movies. He is also a singer and his song, Kokoro Ife, is like a national anthem on the lips of young music lovers in the country.

October 1 is a psychological thriller written by Tunde Babalola. Kunle produced, directed and also played the part of Koya, the farmer who many thought was illiterate but turned out educated. With stars such as Sadiq Daba, Kayode Olaiya, David Bailie, Kehinde Bankole, Kanayo O. Kanayo, Fabian Adeoye Lojede, Nick Rhys, Femi Adebayo, Bimbo Manuel, Ibrahim Chatta and Deola Sagoe, Kunle Afolayan tells a story with very strong themes such as tribalism, Western imperialism, paedophilia, homosexuality and unity.

The film, which is set in colonial Nigeria, narrates the story of Danladi Waziri (Sadiq Daba), a police officer from the North who is posted to a remote town in the Southwest, known as Akote, to investigate the frequent female murder cases. He is to resolve the mystery before the Nigerian flag is raised on October 1.

The film’s production design, cinematography and its exploration of powerful themes have earned it praises at private and public screenings. It has also brought in awards, too. The movie won the Best Feature Film award among the over 75 films in competition at the just-concluded Africa International Film Festival (AFRIFF), which held in Calabar, Cross River State. As a matter of fact, Afolayan’s feat took Africa by storm, because he defeated strong contenders on the continent. Daba also won the Best Actor prize for playing Inspector Waziri. Babalola, the writer of the October 1 script, also clinched the Best Screenplay plaque.

Prior to its release, its trailer won the Best Fiction Film Trailer at the International Movie Trailers Festival in 2013. Afolayan himself received two awards: the ‘Creative Entrepreneur in Filmmaking’ and ‘Overall Creative Entrepreneur’ from the British Council in Nigeria earlier in the year. He has just been announced as one of the first set of beneficiaries of the Federal Government’s Project Act-Nollywood grant.

Behind October 1

The film did not just become a success over night. It started with a script entitled Dust because of the dusty nature of the setting. During casting, it was gathered that getting a suitable actor to play Waziri was a Herculean task. Kunle, who has carved a niche for himself as not settling for less, was out for the best man. He eventually settled for Daba who has been off the big screen for a decade or so. But that was not the only challenge that tested Kunle’s ingenuity as a man of creative ideas.

Done with casting, funding issue also cropped out. For a period film like October 1, the past has to be recreated. Phone mast cannot be seen in any shot because there was no such in 1960. The cars have to reflect the season; so must the costumes. The guns too must show their age and time. Achieving all these meant one and only thing: spending more money.

With sponsorships from the Lagos State Government, Toyota Nigeria, Elizade Motors, Guinness and Sovereign Trust Insurance, Kunle was able to shoot in Lagos and Ondo states for a period of about 60 days using RED cameras. He was also able to foot the bills for the four months of pre-production. He was equally able to pay a production design guru, Pat Nebo, to do the production design, half of the props used in the film, shotguns and the other props, such as television sets from the ’50s. Antique vehicles were acquired and refurbished for the film. In all, it is estimated that the film has gulped N200 million. Experts say it is the first of such in the country, except Half of a Yellow Sun, which has support from the United Kingdom.

Kunle explained how the money was spent: “We shot on RED cameras. All those forest scenes were shot using two pieces of 12K HMI light. To rent one 12K costs between N80, 000 and N100, 000 per day, and we shot for about 60 days. We had more than 30 lights on that shoot altogether. We had about 100 cast and crew members, living and feeding on the production. Post-production costs more than N20 million, which is why the film looks good. We tried to maximise the potentials that we have in-house. By this, the only thing we did outside the country was colour correction and grading. We used two RED cameras, each one costing over N100, 000 a day.

Also, look at the costumes for that period as well as the cars. We had to refurbish some of those cars so as to create that period and put them to use. In that town are electric poles, electric wires, transformers and billboards, MTN, Airtel and Globacom masts all over the place. Did you see anything like that in the film? “They were all removed at post-production. And PFX costs fortunes. If I start breaking it down, we will be here all day.

“The reason we have spent so much is that we believe strongly that there is so much potential for this kind of film. How many viewers do we really need to be able to recoup that money? It’s not a lot. The good thing is that, you now have Filmhouse, whose cinema chain seems to be expanding every day. And they already said to me that by the time we are releasing it in October, they will be having about 20 screens compared to the six that we had when we released The Figurine and Phone Swap.”

How it started for Kunle, the poster boy of Nigerian cinema

It can be safe to say that acting and all that run in Kunle’s blood, since his father was a movie maker. All through his father’s career, he only did a waka pass role in television series, where he was asked to call someone in one of the scenes. Not a few will trace his bursting on the scene back to ace cinematographer, Tunde Kelani, when he was shooting a movie titled Saworoide. A young man was needed to play the role of Aresejabata, a prince who was not supposed to reveal his identity for fear of being killed. Kunle got the role and gave his best. He literally vanished into the thin air after playing the role.

With a Higher National Diploma (HND), he got himself a job in a bank and ‘slaved’ away for years. The movie bug caught him one day in 2004. He resigned his job and found his way to a film academy in the United States. He came back a new person ready to make a difference in the movie industry. He did Irapada, a movie on Redemption, which experiments with languages such as Yoruba, English and Hausa. But it was not until Figurine that his presence became something that must be talked about. This movie built around a myth seemingly created a bigger myth around the producer.

His problem with Mike Adenuga over Phone Swap

Kunle’s success has seen him joining the elite list of actors, actresses and musicians known as Globalcom Ambassadors. They are the faces of the telecommunication giant owned by billionaire Mike Adenuga. They are paid in millions as sign-off fees. Kunle’s time to belong came not long after Figurine. Star actor Odunlade Adekola and Kunle were inducted about the same time. But Kunle’s did not last. It is a battle between money and professionalism. Kunle chose professionalism.

Here is how the story goes: Globalcom was a major sponsor of Phone Swap, Kunle’s third movie, a hilarious romantic comedy, which features sensational Ghanaian actress Lydia Forson. After the completion of the movie, it was shown to Adenuga. The face of a popular actor and comedian, Hafeez Oyetoro (aka Saka), got him angry. He requested that all the scenes in which Saka featured must be re-shot with another actor playing the role.

Oyetoro, at the time, was in the news over his switch from advertising for Etisalat to MTN. The actor explained that he was only a model for Etisalat who became an ambassador for MTN after proper contract papers were signed. He said he had no contract with Etisalat. It was a major discussion point in the advertising world for a long time. What was not in doubt was that Oyetoro fitted the bill for MTN’s number portability campaign.

Kunle, in an interview, said he explained things to Adenuga, but the moneyman insisted Oyetoro must be off the movie. Kunle stood his ground, saying removing Oyetoro would amount to killing the movie. Again, Oyetoro fitted the bill very well. The results: Globalcom did not release the balance of its sponsorship of the movie and Kunle was removed as an ambassador. He says he has no regrets for staying on the side of professionalism.

Gabriel: a man of two worlds

Gabriel, the youngest of the known Afolayan siblings, enjoys the best of both worlds: he sings and acts. His credits include Tade Ogidan’s Madam Dearest and a star-studded musical thriller titled Hoodrush, which has the likes of Bimbo Akintola, O.C. Ukeje, Chelsea Eze, among others. His single, Love Bug or Kokoro Ife, is soon to be followed by another titled Chapters. Love Bug is a love song that talks about love and its complications.

“The endless search for love just like everybody always looks around for it and at the end of the day, you still don’t get to have it. All you keep having is hope. So the decision for you to now go further to make sure you have it or sit back is what Love Bug is about,” Gabriel explained.

Not a few think Gabriel’s skills as an actor have not been fully utilised. He told The Nation in an interview: “In everything you do, no matter how good you think your game or your work may be, I think there is a point where you need to decide how you want to go, because that plays a very important role in anything you do. You need to know what you’re doing in terms of how you want to do it. How to achieve that ends meet.

“I’m looking forward to a wonderful career; a career that gives me a feeling of freedom -A feeling that every work of mine that you pick up to watch will make sense. Right about now, I’m focusing on my music career as well and I’m taking it seriously because music is no joke. I think it’s just the line I’ve chosen to toe.

“For some people in this acting game, their desire is for their face to be everywhere and they will go every tooth and nail to make sure that happens. But for some people, they want to have a wonderful career of probably classics. They want to be known for good stuffs and they know that they cannot be everywhere at the same time. Our level of energy is not the same, and I think humans are built with different emotional feeling. So what you want may not be what I want. It is personal decision. So, it is not one thing affecting the other.”

Gabriel’s involvement in Ogidan’s acclaimed two-part film, Madam Dearest, is a testimony to his prowess. Ogidan, a well-established and award-winning movie producer and director with films such as Owo Blow, Dangerous Twins and Diamond Ring to his credit, needed a good actor. Gabriel auditioned just like any other actor on set. Ogidan was oblivious of his relationship with the late Ade Love. He found him good enough and gave him the role, which movie buffs still talk about till date.

“I was a nobody, but he gave that kind of role to me, even when he didn’t know that I was the son of Adeyemi Afolayan. He never knew until after production. It was a big risk on his part and I didn’t let him down. I think the relationship grew after then,” Gabriel said.

Aremu Olumide: the controversial one

Of the three showbiz brothers, Aremu is the most controversial. Kunle and others seem to prefer to call him Olumide. Like Kunle, he is an actor, producer and director. But the sort of films he directs are nowhere near Kunle’s in terms of quality.

His love life has been subject for gossip columns. His wife, whom he married late last year, is said to be older than he is. His traducers say he married her for the money she has and insinuated that Kunle and Gabriel shunned the wedding, which Aremu has debunked.

When he bought a Bentley car, it was rumoured it was a gift from one of the older women he was going out with, an allegation he refuted by saying that he bought it with his hard-earned money. Aremu, who directs many of the low-budget films made by Okiki Films and Records, defended his love for older women.

He said: “I love ladies that are older than me. It is my business, because I don’t find the real love and happiness in the young ladies. Can you imagine a situation where I sleep with my girl now and she will go and sleep with one Yahoo boy or my daddy’s friend again because she needs money?

“I have to follow someone who is not a girl, as they say, but a lady that is at least older than me. This is what I like. It is my life and not theirs. I owe no one any explanation. I can only explain to God and until He comes, I will continue. They say I am a gigolo? I owe no one any explanation for the way I live my life. They can criticise my film, but not my life.

“They said I dated rich women for money. I wish I am one because a gigolo doesn’t get broke like this. If I am a gigolo, I won’t sell my properties to do a film. I sold three of my cars to raise the money. I am not what people think I am. My wife’s family is not rich let alone my wife. I got married to somebody I wanted to get married to and not because of her wealth. I don’t know why people say all they want to say.”

Moji: contended playing by the sideline?

Their eldest sister and first born of the late Afolayan, Mojirola, seems contended with the few roles her husband’s movies can offer her. She hardly works with other producers outside of Ibadan. Most of the productions she has been in also feature Ojopagogo, her producer-cum-actor hubby.

Though born in Ibadan, she had her primary education at Coker Primary School, at Orile Iganmu, Lagos State. Secondary education was at Esie\Iludun Anglican School and to Oyo State College of Education, now Emmanuel Alayande College of Education, she went to read English/Yoruba. Her mum, Mrs Beatrice Afolayan, is a retired teacher. Mojirola featured in her father’s last film, Eyin Oku (Events after death), produced in 1992. Of recent, she has been off the movie set due to her expectant status. She is now nursing the baby and hoping to return to the screen.

The father they never saw often

Because of his involvement in the travelling theatre, the Agbamu, Irepodun Local Government Area of Kwara State-born late Afolayan (Ade Love)  was always on the move. Mojirola, Kunle, Gabriel and Aremu saw less of him. They and their other siblings were more the headache of their mothers. As customary for theatre artistes in the late Ade Love’s era, such as the late Hubert Ogunde, marrying several women came with the trade. His was a large polygamous family.

They didn’t have that nuclear family setting where everybody sat together for dinner. It was either they were filming or travelling on tour across with those films, such as Taxi Driver and Ija Ominira, which was shot in 1978. The late Ade Love also attended film festivals around the world. So, it was a luxury for his children to have many intimate moments with him.

With no less than 25 children and 10 wives, his family was like a community of its own and having time for them all with his busy schedule of making films, distributing films and others would have taken more than a miracle.

At some point, Kunle’s mother had to sell puff-puff and pepper soup to fend for her kids. They were even thrown out of the house they were living and had to squat with a friend. It was in a house infected with bed bugs. She later got a place of her own, but was soon sacked by flood. All her belongings went with the angry waters.

The late Ade Love was a disciplinarian. Each time any of the children had to go see him, he or she had to do the sign of the cross. He was a tough man, who, however, did not use much of corporal punishment except when he could not help it, like when Kunle tried selling the clipper with which he used in cutting his hair.

He was addicted to Bollywood films, which incidentally Mojirola also likes till date, and his love-based stories, such as Taxi Driver 1 and 2 have this influence in them.

Interestingly, he did not encourage his children to take to theatre arts because he felt they would only earn fame and not money to fend well for their families. He wanted them to be rich so he encouraged them to be lawyers or doctors. But as time has shown, fate has a different plan for some of his children. Though Kunle says he still has no money and is still a tenant, fame is something he has in abundance.

Towards the end of the late Afolayan’s life, he moved some members of the family to Kwara State. He became closer to the children. Then, he used to call them together and tell them stories. His reason for taking some of his children, including Kunle, to Kwara State, his birth place, was that he wanted them to school there so they could learn how life was. The holder of a diploma in Secretarial Studies and Performing Arts from UI always drummed it in their ears that ‘hardwork pays’.

Kunle was in Akure, the Ondo State capital, to send one of his father’s films to an agent who wanted to screen it during the Christmas period in 1996 when he learnt of his death. He had left him in Lagos on December 29 for Akure, and he died on December 30. He read it in  a newspaper on January 1.  An era ended and his children have started a new one.

Waiting for Kunle, Moji, Aremu and Gabriel to co-star

Questions have been asked about why Kunle has not featured any of his siblings in his acclaimed movies. His answer has always been that the roles determine who he uses. Gabriel sees it from a similar prism: “The question is how many jobs has he done? Irapada, Figurine and Phone Swap. But do you want to hear a gospel right now? In all of those productions, I’m always behind the set, learning, which for me is even better. Because Kunle is my brother does not mean I have to appear in his movies if need not be. Meanwhile, being behind set with him so that I can learn how to pull an entire production together is better, rather than to think that acting is everything. But not to worry, something is coming up very soon. There is something coming up very soon. I’m not going to tell you anything about it.”

Gabriel added that this fact had nothing to do with sibling rivalry. “Conflict for where? He is a father figure. What are you talking about? We are working on something. I’m always behind set with him. Right now, don’t be surprised if I have my own production, fully written and directed by me. So don’t let it be a miracle. I’m not going to talk about it yet. But we are working on a stuff where we have me, him, Aremu and my sister on same set. We are working on it.” The last has certainly not been heard of these siblings. Certainly!

Additional reports by Mercy Michael