-
Veteran Actor, ATO SEKU Reveals
-
Talks About Her Role In New Movie, OJO ALE
Her name might not ring a bell right now, but her face remains recognisable, her stage name, Ato Aseku is well known. Abimbola Adegboye is one of the female veterans of the Yoruba movie industry. She has paid her dues. She is one of the outstanding actresses of her generation who became very popular on the set of Omi Inu Posi by Dende Lawori and Iru Ni by Fadeyi Oloro. Her husband was also an actor and he was the one who brought her into acting. He is late now. His name was Alhaji Ganiu Adebisi Adegboye aka “Tiro Ahan Moju”. Abimbola played the role of the wife of Pa Tunbosun Odunsin, who played lead role in the movie, Ojo Ale. As always, she interpreted the role so well that she drew lots of positive commendations from many who have seen the movie. And she believes Ojo Ale would definitely revive her career.
City People’s Senior Editor, WALE LAWAL (08037209290) had a brief chat with the very warm and amiable Abimbola Adegboye aka Ato, Aseku. She had lots to share with us about her early days in the movie industry. Without a doubt, owing to her impressive performances in many block buster movies, she has become a household name, respected and admired till date. But she remains grateful to God for keeping her alive to feature in a movie project like Ojo Ale. Enjoy excerpts.
How do you feel with this movie project, Ojo Ale, produced by Doyin Amodu to bring together all the forgotten movie veterans?
We are so very grateful to her. I can’t stop praying for her. She has been wonderful. She has been amazing. I am hoping thsat this movie, Ojo Ale, will not be her last project, in fact, it will be the beginning of her biggest projects yet to come. The movie has me and the rest of my colleagues back to limelight and we are so grateful to her. And I pray she makes enough profit from this project so that it can encourage her to do more for the elders in the industry.
How did you feel, ma, when you first got here and saw several people you have not seen in a very long time?
Oh, my God! We are so very happy. There are some of us who actually thought they had been totally forgotten forever. They thought it was finished for them. But Doyin brought them back to life with the movie, Ojo Ale. They couldn’t believe they would ever return to location to work on any movie production again. Even when we were done shooting Ojo Ale, we didn’t want to leave. We wanted the production to go on and never stop because we were all so happy seeing each other and being together on location again. Doyin made sure we were all comfortable. She made sure we had fun. God will continue to bless her for us. It was difficult for us to part after the movie production. We were on video call with her till her plane took off at the airport. She was waving goodbye to us and we were waving back at her. It was such an emotional moment.
Tell us, ma, like how many years now have you been acting?
It was about eight years ago that I marked my 40 years on stage. It was a big event at the time. I remember it was Saheed Osupa that played for me at the event.
So, you’re saying in another two years or thereabout you will be clocking 50 years as a movie/theater practitioner?
Yes, exactly, you’re very correct. In two years from now, I will be celebrating my 50 years on stage. My husband was Alhaji Ganiu Adebisi Adegboye, they called him, ‘Tiro, ahan moju.’ He was also known as Ojikutu. He was my boss, he was my husband. He was the one who taught me how to act. Though he is late now, I pray God Almighty grants him eternal rest. He was the one that taught me everything I know about the theater today. I had nobody else but him. And I am happy and proud that he taught me a good thing, something that has enabled me to carry his name and keep his legacies alive. And it is this acting profession that I still use to feed myself till date. So, I thank him for giving me a very valuable thing.
For how many years did you act alongside your husband before he passed away?
We were together for over 30 years. I can recall that it was not long after he died that I had my 40 years celebration as an actress, so we must’ve acted together for well over thirty years. May God forgive him his sins and protect his children.
During your own time when you were acting, there was no social media, there were not many television stations back then, all that you were doing were stage dramas….
No, there was none then (cuts in). I danced from the village down to Lagos back then because we were performing everywhere. We were doing stage plays. There were no videos then, no Compact Discs. And there was no cut whenever you make mistake on stage. You would have to find a way to correct yourself and get back to the flow of the script.
It is easier these days for producers to just get some money and move people to location. But during your own time, it was not easy to embark on a movie production. How challenging were those times for you?
Oh, yes, you’re right, it was very tough for us back then. These days, anybody that has the money can just gather people together and take them top location to shoot and that shouldn’t be the case. There are times I feel they are overdoing these things. You can’t just say because you have money you have automatically become a practitioner, it is wrong. And then they now ignore those of us that have been in the profession for so long. As professionals, we are supposed to kick against such practice but you will find that a few ones amongst us will still go behind to embrace such people and work with them, saying sebi, he or she is spending their money. We don’t know how to address this anomaly. For someone like me, I have not produced any movie of my own before, but I have participated in several others produced by other people. This is why I am grateful to Doyin for this opportunity she has given people like us to showcase our talent again. She was even told by some people that investing on these veterans could get her fingers burnt but we have assured her that there will be no such thing. She will never regret doing this movie project, Ojo Ale, for us.
What were some of the movie productions that you did with either your husband while he was alive or a few others, that you can say were really popular back then?
One of the very popular productions I did with my late husband, Alhaji Ganiu Adebisi Adegboye was Iya Agan. It was very popular back then. All that time, I was not even popular then. I now did Omi Inu Posi with Dende Lawori. That was the production that brought me out into the spotlight. I also did Koto Nkan with Wunmi, and that also shot me to limelight. I did Iru NI with Fadeyi Oloro, and it also projected me. And so many others like that.
What advice do you have for the younger ones, ma?
To tell you the truth, I don’t even know the kind of advice to offer these young ones again. They get to location and you see them wearing very skimpy things, with all their bumbum exposed. And we are supposed to be the ones teaching the society moral values. When people call us and say, mama, don’t you see how these young ones are dressed? We tell them, yes, we see them, and we talk to the few we can talk to. But the thing is that the industry has become terribly corrupted by those who have no sincere love and passion for the profession.
Send Us News, Gist, more... to citypeopleng@gmail.com | Twitter: @CitypeopleMagz
