How Late AJIGIJAGA Boosted My Acting Career

• Veteran Actor, RADICAL

His real name is Kamorudeen Olawale Serva but most people know him as Radical. He was known as Radical the Corporate Lawyer in his hey day. Radical was a notorious criminal actor who excited and entertained movie watchers with his impressive acting skills while playing roles such as a hired assassin, armed robber, gang leader, etc. His boss and mentor in the industry was the dynamic and hugely talented late Ajigijaga. According to Radical, “I learnt a lot from Ajigijaga, he was my boss, my every thing. I can never forget him and the impact he had in my life and in my career,” he said of the late iconic actor.

Few weeks ago, City People’s Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL (08037209290) caught up with Radical at the movie premiere of the block buster movie, Ojo Ale, produced by UK based actress and producer, Doyin Amodu. Radical spoke extensively about his foray into the world of acting, his relationship with the late Ajigijaga and how he came about his stage name, Radical. Enjoy the brief chat with Radical.

How do you feel about what Doyin Amodu is doing here with the premiere of the movie, Ojo Ale?

Oh, my brother, you cannot imagine my joy and excitement as I am speaking to you right now. Doyin Amodu has done something unprecedented in the industry. She has brought hundreds of veterans together to feature all of them in one movie. We are talking about people who have not acted for decades now. Some of them have not seen each other in forty years. By God’s grace, she will find sponsors for the movie. I pray God will not let this be her last movie project. You cannnot just begin to quantify what she has done with this project. One of our elders at the location said to me, ‘Radical, the last time I saw you was at the location of Jimoh Aliu’s movie titled, Ewa.’ Another said to me, it’s been foirty years since he saw me. This is so wonderful to experience, seeing all these elders again.

I undertand that you and the late Ajigijaga alse featured in movies together….

Ah, that’s my mentor, my boss…(hails Ajigijaga as he turns to stare at the late actor’s picture behind him) There he is, Ajigijaga, broken bottle, igi elera fear nobody. If we are talking about artistes that drew the younger ones to himself, broken bottle was not just one of them, he was number one. When I came back from Kaduna then, there were so many crime actors on the scene. Those that were reigning then were Eyin Ejo, Olumose. When I joined them, I started differentiating myself by wearing dreadlocks, and Ajigijaga said, you’re a good actor, nice one, and he started involving me in his jobs. He would teach me dialogue and how to be creative with it. Ajigijaga, Go-slow and I teamed up together back then to do great jobs together. That was when we did jobs for the likes of Wemimo, Alade Aromire. Anytime I remember his death, it breaks my heart because he was a brother, a mentor, he was everything to me.

Can you recall for us some of those big movies that you guys did together back then?

Wow, sure I can remember some of those movies like The Picture, Ododo Eye was also a hit, Yankee lowo ko omi and so many others. I was the closest person to Ajigijaga in the industry and I always hailed him by saying ‘Broken bottle international, another broken bottle is a counterfeit,’ may his soul rest in perfect peace.

What do you respect about Ajigijaga the most?

I respect a lot of things about him. One of them is that he is the king of dialogue. He was very creative with his dialogue. There was a day on set when he said he drove a car at a very high and reckless speed that the steering of the car came off! There was also a time he said at a police station that a policeman shot him in the teeth and the officer asked him, so where is the teeth, he said he swallowed it. So, he was very good with dialogue. Another thing is that he was a very religious person. He never joked with his five daily prayers as a Muslim. Whenever he was on location, once it was time for prayers, he will stop work and pray. And he never took alcohol too, many people didn’t know that about him. He was a very prayerful person. I remember one occasion, we were in Ibadan shooting a movie and when it was time to pray, we looked for a mosque and went inside. You needed to see how people were scared of us because of the roles they see us play in movies. It was like they had seen the devil enter the house of God. Seeing me, Radical and Ajigijaga coming into the mosque to pray was almost unreal to them. But in the end, when they saw how focused we were on our prayers, they were very impressed.

How did you get your stage name, Radical?

Okay, thank you for the question. I started acting from Kaduna, so when I got to Lagos, most of the guys playing criminal roles were using local names and dressing in ways that portrayed them as criminals, so I said to myself, what name could I give to myself that will stand out from these other popular names and will show some creativity? A few names came to mind that I wasn’t quite comfortable with, then I remembered Gani Fawehinmi, the radical lawyer and I said, yes, that’s it, I would call myself Radical the Corporate killer. So, I went and got myself a suit to make myself look corporate and different from the other criminal actors who looked rough and unkempt. So, that was how I became Radical the Corporate killer. In most productions, when it came to crime scenes, the directors would ask that I should be the one to go inside the victim’s apartment because I was dressed in suit and didn’t look like a criminal while the other guys would be asked to stay outside and wait for instructions from me.