He is young. He is vibrant. He is also hugely talented and dynamic as well. His name is Ibrahim Moruf, popularly known within the movie circles as Young Boss. Ask any movie practitioner who Ibrahim Moruf is and they will tell you he’s that young, extremely humble and tenacious actor/producer everyone likes to work with. Even the veterans in the business have a soft spot for Ibrahim. No wonder a lot of them agreed to feature in his new movie project titled, UNTOLD.’ Stars like Antar Laniyan, Ayo Mogaji, Yomi Fash Lanso, Kelvin Ikeduba, Jumoke Odutola, Aina Gold and many others all featured prominently in UNTOLD. These veterans in the industry are impressed with the fact that Ibrahim is a very calm, humble and respectful young man who takes his craft very seriously. They will tell you Young Boss, as he’s fondly called, does not joke with his job. He is a very serious and ambitious movie practitioner who is determined to make a massive success of his career, no matter how tough things may look for now.
The new movie that professionals, especially those who have seen snippets of it, in the movie industry are talking about right now is the film, UNTOLD, produced by Ibrahim Moruf and directed by Shakiru Tijani. It is a movie shot with some of the best cameras you can possibly find. The technical quality of the movie is impressive, the story line is compelling and the assemblage of super stars in the movie by Ibrahim has earned him kudos from movie buffs and critics.
In this interview with City People’s Seniort Editor, WALE LAWAL (08037209290) Ibrahim opens up on the challenges he faced while shooting UNTOLD and how he was able to get top movie stars to agree to work with him on the movie. Enjoy excerpts of it.
Congratulations on the completion of your new block buster movie titled ‘UNTOLD.’ I have seen the trailer and I must say I am very impressed with the technical quality of the movie and the fact that you have an array of top movie stars in it. You have Antar Laniyan, Yomi Fash Lanso, Jumoke Odutola, Aina Gold and lots more. Tell us a bit about the storyline. What inspired the storyline of the movie, ‘UNTOLD’?
The movie UNTOLD is actually tells a bit about the story of my life. It reveals the controversy behind my birth, real life now. The movie talks about a boy that was raised by a single mother, he never really knew his father. Though he was made to believe that the man he grew up to know was his real father, not knowing he was just the step-father. While the mother was young, she had intimacy with a ghetto character played by Yomi Fash. They had a one night affair and the woman in question, played by Ayo Mogaji, got pregnant. Meanwhile, Yomi Fash didn’t know anything about Ayo Mogaji anymore, she had met another man who offered to marry her. He was a bike man and he was desperately in love with her so he didn’t even mind whether she was pregnant with another man’s child or not. So, along the line, things were not going well for the son and he had to consult some Muslim clerics who revealed to him that there are some untold parts of his life that have not been revealed to him and this is the reason for the difficulties he is experiencing in life and that he needs to get his father’s blessings and prayers to surmount the obstacles before him. A lot of people often misinterpret what the bible says about a child getting the parents blessings. People think getting your mother’s blessing is the ultimate and that the father’s blessings and prayers are not that as important as that of the mother. But it’s wrong. The bible didn’t say get your mother’s prayers alone, it actually said parents’s blessings, but people often get this erroneous impression that it’s the mother’s prayers that’s important. The movie UNTOLD highlights the importance of a father’s prayers in the life of a child. So many things, so many intrigues happened in the movie, it’s a must watch for everyone.
How were you able to bring all the big super stars together? These are powerful names in the industry that can transform any movie script into a commercial success any day, anytime, how did you do it?
Let me begin by saying that this is the biggest movie project I have ever done. And these stars played a big role in making it happen for me. These are movie stars that are so professional that they are not often particular about how much you’re paying them, they are more interested in the depth of the script you’re bringing to them. The likes of Yomi Fash, Antar Laniyan and Mogaji, you can’t just get them to come and play any role for you just because you’re paying them, what they wanty to know is, what kind of story are you telling? I will be honest, it was not easy at all bringing them togther but trust me, from the cast to the crew, the minute they read the story, they were all ready to work with me. What they do is that once you approach them for a movie role and they hear the storyline, if they are not impressed they won’t even give you the details of their bank account not to talk of you offering them anything. It was a big challenge getting them on board but thank God everything went well at the end of the day.
There is no doubt that UNTOLD is your biggest project so far. Anyone who has seen just a few minutes of it can see the top notch technical quality and this does not come cheap. How were you able to run around to put this very remarkable movie together?
Yeah, like you know, I am an independent producer. So, I had to do everything all by myself. Movie is big business, to make profit from it, you have to invest a huge amount of money. This is why I try to come up with original story lines for my movies so that they can stand out and be unique in the market to attract good returns on investment. Producing UNTOLD really challenged me. For instance, while I was shooting this movie, my mum was really down. It was so bad that she lost one of her sight while I was battling with production of this movie. So, it challenged me greatly but I am one person that loves challenges. If I give you snippets of my next movie, you will be wowed, trust me. It will cost me lots of money but I’m ready to make that sacrifice because this is what I have passion for. I had to sell some of my properties to put the money for this movie together. And how many people can you talk to now to lend you N20million naira to produce your movie? If the person is not familiar with the business, he will be like, ah, what do you want to do with that kind of money? The camera we use for five days alone is a million naira. We are also talking about lighting and other equipments. So, I just had to dispose of some of my properties.
To be honest with you, I believe the movie is worth the investment and I have no doubts in my mind that, with proper marketing, you will make back your investment. I noticed that you also went to gym before you went to location for this movie because you were showing off your six packs…
Yeah, I did. I trained for about 11 months and three weeks to build up my body. The role I played required me to be slim and slightly muscular and I don’t believe in all these funny products in which they tell you take this tablet or capsule and in one week, your weight disappears. I don’t believe in them so I went to the gym. I needed to make the storyline believable. There was a part I was running in the desert for like three hours.
Where did you get that desert location?
The location is in Lagos state and it’s somewhere in Alimosho local government. Its between Command and Ikola, all those areas are still within Lagos state.
The action scenes too were quite neatly done. The director, Tijani, did a really good job. So, what are your plans in terms of premiering the movie, any date in mind yet?
No, not yet. We are talking to the movie board first. Of course they will need to preview the movie. But we are almost ready with the movie, its going through the subtitling stage now. Once we’re done with that, I will engage the movie board and conclude with them so we can begin to make plans for the promotion, publicity will start and we move to the premiere.
I am also going to engage Netflix and see what agreement we can reach. I believe the movie has everything to meet their standards because we worked with their requirements and standards in mind while shooting the movie.
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