Date: 2018-03-24

Saidi Balogun is as enigmatic as they come. Just as you get used to seeing him in one role, like a chameleon, he switches and blends again like he was born to the new role, and his audience never gets bored. Asides the fact that he is a veteran, as a core entertainer and a movie producer, he has stretched the bounds of what is known as a great movie in Nigeria. His film exploits always have something unique that make it a first of first. Saturday INDEPENDENT's Ifeoma Ononye and Tomi Falade in this interview talk with him on his career, the challenges of the Nigerian film industry and his exploits as an actor and filmmaker.

When you went into entertainment, were your folks in support of it? My mother had the belief that I will be an entertainer one day. Most of my extended family from my mother's side were all into acting back then, though at the stage level. I can boldly say that I have been in this career for more than 40 years now.

Asides acting, have you ever ventured into any form of business or career?

For about 80 per cent of my life, it has been about acting. No other business but acting. From street acting to stage plays to mobile theatres to television and from television to radio and from radio to filming.

So you have you ever touched any other career that is not entertainment?

Everything I have ever done is entertainment, nothing else.

Most people find it boring staying in one career for so long. Did you never get bored or consider going into politics?

Never. I am like a soldier in entertainment; you don't get bored or tired of the war. I have no regrets what so ever. Everything I have ever done is entertainment. If you see me following politicians, businessmen or any other person, it's from the entertainment angle.

If you didn't have people in your family that were actors, do you think you would still tow this line of career?

I will tell you yes. I have one philosophy in life. We have one driver in this whole world and that driver is the same commander, the director. He is God. Without my mother, if God had still said that this is what I will do in life, nobody can change it.

Every actor has a story about who inspired them to be where they are, who were your key mentors?

I have lots of them because I started on my own. I have been doing my thing on my own. For example, Madam Saje, Lola Idije, Yinka Quadri, they believed I should go to school. When I got to Ilorin, Adewale Eleso helped me out and when I come back to Lagos, I have queries to answer from Yinka Quadri, Lola Adije, Madam Saje especially. So I will say a lot of them, they have done so well for me. Also Prince Jide Kosoko, they call him my key man. From the get go, and I am as stubborn as he is. He knows how to handle me. There are a lot of them who have done so much. When I am down I speak to Uncle Olu Jacob, RMD, we talk. There are a lot of them like that, Baba Kola Olaiya, trained by Ogunde talked to me a lot. Till tomorrow, if you see me making huge trouble, he is not aware, because once he is aware, that is the end of the trouble. My greatest mentor though is God.

At what point in your career did you realise that you are getting it right and that you're on the right path?

The day I started feeling fulfilled was the day I did the three-cast film, two-cast film and then the Ankara film – the first of its kind in Africa. From that point on the revolution of film changed. Those are the kind of things that give me fulfilment. I am not interested in power. I only believe that we should do things in the right way. We should tell stories that correct things in the society. So I started feeling fulfilled when I did my two-cast and Ankara film. From then on, I went on to do more.

There was a time you played comic characters like the days of 'Solomon Ayakata', what happened to that comic side of you?

Let me give you a little history. When I started my career in acting, I started acting comic parts. Then when I came to the Yoruba movie scene, I started acting the schoolboy part. After a while I said to myself, "you have done the comedy and schoolboy, can you play the bad boy?" So I decided to try my skills there and play the bad boy and I came up with Walata. So I am an entertainer in the name of God. I love to experiment in this art. I love to give every role a try. I even tried music and people asked me why am I singing and I told them that late Hubert Ogunde sang, Isho Pepper did it, Baba Sala sang. The legends have done it and I don't want to leave any stone unturned.

You have always set the pace. Once you pick up something you take time to do that thing very well. You always try to conquer new grounds, what do you thing is the most important quality you need to have as an actor to get to where you are right now?

Learn to first of all appreciate God. Secondly, we must appreciate each other. You must be ready to learn. Have a clean mind. I don't care if they gave birth to you yesterday, if you know more than me, I am ready to learn but you should respect me. Nobody can stop your movement. They can slow it down a little bit but you will eventually move.

Some of your movies have won awards, when putting those movies together; did you have it at the back of your mind that this is the kind of award you want it to fetch?

Some people do movies and they are already calculating the awards. As for me I don't have time for that. What I look out for is "did I pass a message here?" I did a movie, I was the only black person in the movie. I even brought a white boy who drums and speaks our local language and I was fulfilled because I was promoting our culture. There was a movie I did about 12 years ago and it did not win a single award in Nigeria, years later, people are talking about the movie. It shows that something was wrong somewhere. The most embarrassing moment was when a movie that was released a year before mine was nominated with mine, and that movie won. I was like, "really?" This movie was done last year. It was nominated last year and was brought back the next year again. That did not set me back from the vision I have. I went ahead to do my Ankara movie. If I had set my eyes on awards, that would have killed my spirit. My own is, did you see the movie, did you like it, did you learn something from it and if you have a correction, tell me and I will make amends.

There is a trend now where Nollywood producers invite actors from Hollywood and Nigerians also star in Hollywood movies. What's your take on it, what do you think that can bring into Nigeria?

Nothing yet. Its a mirage, I will say one thing and I will like you to remember it and note it. During the regime of President Goodluck Jonathan, we had the opportunity. We had it on a platter of gold to get what the industry needed. We trouped into Aso Rock as if we were attending Sunday school because Jonathan loved entertainment, but no man ever faced that man or begged him to talk about structure. There is no hard law being passed on piracy. The current minister now, Lai Mohammed, is so loving again, another opportunity for us to get what we need in the entertainment industry. You see him with every music artiste and actor. He is like everybody's father and everybody's friend. And yet no one has asked for a hard law to be passed on piracy. There is no structure. A lot of people who want to come and shoot an international movie here, which ministry will they go to? What is protecting them? What rule will be guiding them? I can't believe it that for more than three months, the heads of all associations, intelligent artistes, we all gathered to brainstorm to review the Mobicon law. After one year, it is still lying there, nobody is talking about it. If I go to U.S today to shoot a movie, the there are laws I must follow, they have a structure. I went to Germany to shoot a movie; they told me that I would be given a grant, and the grant says that 70 per cent of the money should be spent in their country for Germans. While 30 per cent would be spent here in Nigeria. Structure is our problem. I'm not going to America to pay one actor in Hollywood that earns peanuts just to prove a point. I don't belong to that group; I don't live a fake life. We should have a structure.

The Federal Government and members of National Assembly should please help the industry. I am begging the honourable minister now that he is still in power before they change him in 2019, to help build structure in this industry that is giving young people jobs and pass hard laws on piracy. He controls me because I have known him before he became a minster. He is interested in the entertainment business. I have never seen a minister welcoming entertainers like that. He attends premiers. He is everywhere that the entertainers call him.

Nollywood is number three in the whole world. Before Jonathan left, we contributed to the GDP of this country. After petrol we are next. We have a structure for petrol, where is the next place to build structure for? Someone told me that movie producers don't have business sense and I told him it is not his fault because he already has a film house. What other business sense does he want from someone who collects a loan to produce a movie, pays back the loan and still take the movie to the cinemas. The cinema takes 70 per cent and gives the producer 30 percent. If you go to the cinemas, you will discover that you hardly find fantastic films there. Do you know why? Because the people who took their films there did not make their money back, I don't live a fake life. I cannot make N10 and come and tell people that I made 10million. So where is the business? Business without structure. Having a business sense without having a structure is like pouring water in a basket. Are you working on any blockbuster project now?

Yes, I am working on a lot. I have two major ones but I am still looking for sponsors. One is 'Born To Serve'. The other one is the German one, which I said earlier that they said 70 percent or nothing. It's about Nigerians leaving Nigeria to Libya just to go to America and London. What makes them go through these situations just to go abroad, it's because there is a structure there. I am working on another story title 'Who is the government?' when people abuse politicians, I laugh because we are the government. We are the reason things are the way they are. Before a politician contest for election, he comes in with billions of Naira. People will be busy eating rice and turkey, collecting garri. He is investing like a businessman when he wins, as a businessman who has invested, he will make his money back. This is why you see states running into debts. It is you who collected N5000 and N10, 000 from them that is the culprit and not the politician. But if a politician shows interest and has no money and the people contribute to him, they will expect him to be accountable for any penny he spends.

But in our part of the world, if people see me with Governor Ambode today and tomorrow, and they later see me walking and not driving, they will mock me. "Chai, Saidi. After posing with Ambode, nothing to show for it." I am saying it that I don't believe that the politicians are the enemy. It is you and I that are the enemy of our own progress. Don't collect money from politicians. Let's start the sanitisation from me and you.

How did you feel when you were awarded by Daily INDEPENDENT Newspapers as the Actor of the year?

It's the best thing to have ever happened to me. When I read the reason why I was awarded, tears were dropping. They took it from my major achievements like the two-cast movie, up till Banana Island Ghost. It shows that they are truly independent and not being controlled. I feel honoured and happy. It was a wonderful birthday gift for me. For that, well done. So it is one of the best things that have happened to me this decade. I will never forget it because I never saw it coming.

Saidi's Top 5 Best Movies

1. Eti Keta (Third Party)

2. Banana Island Ghost

3. Modupe Temi ( Thankful )

4. Gbogbo Ere ( Total Profit )

5. Òfin mósè (10 Commandments)