Talk about one veteran Yoruba actor who many people respect a lot and hold in high esteem and the name of Araosan will pop up. His real name is Rasaq Ajao, but his nickname is Araosan pefueele. He relocated abroad a few years ago. He now lives in New York. He is a Nurse now. He works in Bellevue Hospital in Manhattan. Although he works in Manhattan, he is based in Queen Village.
A few days back, Araosan spoke to Citypeople about his success story.
Araosan is one big name in the movie industry. He started acting in 1979. He told Citypeople his success story a few days ago.”I finished secondary school in Kwara State and came back to Lagos in 1980 through Omo Awode Theatre Group. After that, I joined Olukoso Theatre group led by Chief Leke Ajao (Kokosari).At the time I was with him,I used to go to see Yinka Quadri. At that time, he was with the Arts Council. That is how Yinka Quadri and I met. We met at Super Cinema. At that time, they used to do rehearsals on Saturdays and Sundays. After taking part,I will go back to our group.
The 1st production that brought me into the limelight was with Yinka Quadri. He was leading their group. Olaniyonu,it is a 3-hour special programme for LTV 8. That was in the year 2002/2003. I was the Babalawo that played the role of Baba, for Yinka Quadri. I was a Babalawo that is very bad.
That is where my nickname,Araosan came from. They will say, Ara ma san, Ara yio san, and I will tell them, Ma so mo, Ma so be mo. Don’t say that again!
That was where my name came from. That was how it was until I started on my own. The 1st Film that I will do on my own was the one I did with Reversal Production, with Muyi Aromire. May God bless his soul. When we did it, by the time we finished we realised it had no sound. We now had to do it all over again after he came back from Germany. We spent double the money. Baba Agbako played the major character in the film.007 is the Number. Then, we did Odada. Yinka Quadri directed it. We did it for N3,000. We have done so many films after that, like Enu Ofofo, where Ogogo played the lead role. The movie was nominated for an award.
Looking back we thank God. And then, in 2002, I won American Lotto. On May,11th 2002, I arrived in America and we began to hustle and struggle until I became a Nurse, that gives the injection.
Since then I have been doing movies. I have done 8 movies plus the ones I did for others.I did Babalawo in America.I did Iwe Igbelu and many more.
