I Went Through Hell Producing My Movie, AJAKAJU

• Star Actress/Movie Producer, ENIOLA AJAO

One of the blockbuster movies that rocked the movie scene a few months back is Ajakaju (Beast Of Two Worlds). It was produced by pretty star actress, Eniola Ajao.

It will be recalled that, the actress became a trending topic on social media after the premiere of the movie “Ajakaju”.

In this exclusive interview with City People Head of TV, SUNDAY ADIGUN, Eniola revealed how she went through hell producing the blockbuster movie. Enjoy it.

Your movie “Ajakaju” scattered social media early this year, how do you feel as the producer?

When I made the movie “Ajakaju”, I knew I was taking a big risk,  because so many other actors in the industry have also taken a bigger risks. It’s not like Nollywood actors don’t make good movies, but the market to sell the movie to is the problem, so every producer wants to cut cost of production.

I was inspired by the cost of production in Femi Adebayo’s movie, king of thieves, I had to sell my land and jewelry, to put money together for my movie production. When I gathered enough money, I called Adebayo Tijani, that I needed a script and he brought up the idea that I should come to Oyo so we can talk, he was shooting a movie at that time, I went there and he casted me on the set, so I spoke to him about the story and he was impressed and we started preparing for the shoot.

When we started shooting the movie, the first day it rained heavily. The second day we couldn’t do too much, within the first two days the shooting didn’t go well. Everyone was worried on my behalf, but I was still focused, because I knew I was taking a risk. Sodiq Adebayo complimented my tenacity, and said he has never seen a girl as strong as I was, because they were all worried for me. But I kept my focus and kept on praying to God. And on the third day of production, things fell in to place till the last day.

After the production, everyone congratulated me that I did a wonderful job, but I still didn’t see it, because I was worried on how to sell it, I prayed to God to help me. After the whole production I didn’t have any money, the movie was shot three years before the release, I had to gather money from my jewelry business and money from location for the post production, and the person that handled the post production, did a really good job, but I needed something different, so I reached out to Femi Adebayo, that I needed a good sound and other things, so he linked me to the people that handled king of thieves, and they did an amazing job. After the post production, I was still scared, but I knew I needed to push myself, so that people could also support me. So I called on some content creators and we came together to post contents back to back,  I just knew I needed to sell my market. Some people didn’t believe I was the one doing all the contents, because of my calm personality. But I knew I have spent lots of money and I must not fail, so I needed to push it out in the market. Although I got some little support, but the sole capital was my money. I started doing dancing contents and all, so my movie was accepted, my energy always goes high when I remember the amount I have spent on it.

Everything I was doing I was seeking consent from people, so when it was time for premiere, someone told me there was this gimmicks they used for premiere. So I had to start thinking of what to do to place the movie in the faces of everyone, to make it the talk of the town, so I thought about inviting Bobrisky and giving him best dressed (female). It was an intentional arrangement, because I knew people will talk about it, but they didn’t speak about it in the way I expected. I was even more shocked when the people from my industry started speaking about it too, and I didn’t want that , so during that time I was called for an interview on ARISE TV, so my people said I should not go and say it’s an arrangement again, but because of the people that was involved, I said I was going to talk about it, because my very supportive colleague Femi Adebayo was in the spotlight too, he didn’t like the way people were dragging him. Even the Muslim community was dragging him, so I had to tell them that it was an arrangement, to give the movie publicity and that we didn’t pay Bobrisky any prize money. People insulted me on every social media platform. When Bob was arrested, people started abusing me that I neglected him. I called Aunty Yinka TNT, that I didn’t neglect Bob, and even Bobrisky knew that I didn’t neglect him. I called the people I had to call to beg them for peace to reign. Some people called me because the news was everywhere in Nigeria.

It was a serious battle but God saw me through. I almost poisoned myself because there was news about me online that was far from the truth. It was the first time in my life that I faced something so painful. I didn’t eat for seven straight days. People around me can testify. I didn’t go anywhere. My sisters were calling, telling me, you have to do this for yourself. You don’t have to poison yourself. My son was reaching out to everyone, saying I was struggling with these lies online.

I don’t even want to remember those things honestly. Everything that happened I didn’t even expect it.

After all these, would you say it was worth it?

The stunt actually helped me, but the drama was what I didn’t want, because I knew people will talk, but within my industry the fight that happened between some people was what I didn’t want. But the noise made it paid off at the end of the day, because (A to ri nkan shey nkan ni olohun), I don’t want to bring people down for me to succeed, because I’m not that kind of a person, but God knows how He plans his things, and everything that happened has been destined to happen, so I wasn’t going to beat myself or feel bad or regret it, because I can’t change it, and take solace in the lessons I learnt from it. So now I know. Although Ajakaju was a success but Ajakaju was supposed to do more than what it did, so the reviews sold Ajakaju. What happened affected Ajakaju but people that went to the cinema told other people that aside the drama, the movie is a great movie and they needed to see it, so that review from people sold Ajakaju. But the drama also affected Ajakaju, but aside that it’s been amazing and it’s been a success.

Are you working on any other production?

I have a project coming, it’s an epic storyline, but the people I want to use are not available yet, so when they give us  a date, we would go on with the shoot. Although it’s a small project, but it’s a lovely storyline. The title is OWAMBE THIEVES, it’s a lot of beautiful moments, bigotry and ethnic marriages, parties. OWAMBE THIEVES is my forthcoming project and I want people to look out for it.