Read About Mr Latin’s Happiest Day
Popularly known as Baba Latin, Bolaji Amusan boasts a career spanning close to 30 years and over forty movies.
Baba Latin can be called a legend in the profession of make believe. In this exclusive interview with AJIBADE ALABI, the international award winner talks about his career and family.
May we meet you?
My name is Bolaji Amusan, popularly called ‘Mr Latin’ or ‘Baba Latin’. I am from Gbangan in Osun State but reside in Abeokuta, Ogun State. Thus, I’m a dual citizen.
How long have you been in the movie industry?
My acting career started in March 1988. By the year 2018 God willing, I’ll be celebrating 30 years in the industry.
In the 29 years of your career, what are the changes you can recall in the industry?
A whole lot of things have changed since I joined the industry. In recent years, you can see for yourself that there is more awareness and acceptance for the profession compared to the years past.
Then, acceptability was very low and people looked down on the job, but now, it is a generally accepted profession. The trend has changed drastically. Now-a-days, you see engineers, doctors and other people in different fields of profession encouraging their children to enroll at acting schools and the rest.
Another significant change can be seen in the aspect of technological advancement. We cannot compare the types of cameras and equipment we used in shooting movies these days with the types we had when I just started out.
The cameras and equipment we have now are very good, fast, efficient and easy to set up. Rotor, you see the artists that started out during my time, my humble self-inclusive, dived into acting because of the passion and zeal we had for the job. As at that time, dedication and professionalism was on the high side. We received very little remuneration for the jobs we did and we were not even bothered. All we wanted to do was to impact our society through our acting prowess. It’s so unfortunate that in recent times, most of the people in the industry are not passionate about the profession but the fame and money that come with it, that’s why you see a lot of half-baked people parading themselves as celebrities because they have featured in one or two movies.
Often times, we see most of the movie legends in both Yoruba and English genre movies suffer in old age. As a matter of fact, some of them come out publicly to seek for help before they receive any form of attention. What do you think can be done to avoid this or improve their welfare?
Many thanks for the question. However, you should realize that this welfare issue is not peculiar to the movie industry alone. It’s prevalent in almost all the sectors of the country’s economy. Retired teachers, railway workers and the rest also go through similar challenges. In a situation like this, I believe the fault should be attributed to the government of the day. Let’s take for instance, in some developed countries, when you reach certain age, the government will start providing you with some basic amenities to make life comfortable. You have access to free medical care, free transportation etc. But here in Nigeria, the reverse is the case. Sincerely, I have to admit that actors’ guild is not happy going cap in hand to ask for help anytime one of her members is sick or in dire need of help. We believe that the services we render to the public were not for free, so why should we bother them again? They paid for the movies and so they are not under any obligation to start contributing money for us because we have personal issues. Because of issues like this and several others, that was why we in Theatre-Art and Motion Picture Practitioners Association on Nigeria (TAMPAN) introduced a health insurance scheme, whereby members contribute a certain amount annually, so that in the event of any health challenges, you are adequately catered for.
There is this general belief that most female artists are doing better than their male counterparts. How true is this and why do you think it is so?
It is a very wrong notion and perception. Do you know how successful Odunlade Adekola is with the number of properties and assets he owns? Have you been to Femi Adebayo’s abode to relate with his success? Same can be said for Sanyeri, Muyiwa Ademola and many other male artists. My humble self is also not left out. To God be the glory, I can call myself a success in this profession as well. The way we all decide to use our lives are different. There are some of us who doesn’t like to blow our trumpets. Even many of the male artists including our Ogas in the industry are doing well. But of course, I admit that that the female nature is somehow different. Even outside the movie industry, for you to know that a man is rich; you need to see his wife. A man may have a Range Rover and another small car, for all you know he may be driving the small car while the wife will prefer to cruise the Range Rover even down the road to buy tomatoes.Even if she is a full time house wife, she would dress to kill with jewelleries and other accessories, drive the Lamborghini to the market just to buy Iru (locust bean), that is the feminine nature for you.
We also need to understand that some male artists have as many as five children in the university, a wife at home and other family issues they attend to financially. Hence, the way and manner they will spend or show off will surely be different from a lady that is single or still have a man to take care of her. The actor may just have a car and build one house and then channel all his energy on the children and wife.
Another factor is that most of the opportunities open to female artists; the male are not often accrued to. For example, a Senator may just watch one movie and if he likes a girl, he may just send one of his boys to go and give her a car. A Deputy Governor may just decide to go and dash a girl a lump sum of money because he just loves her in a movie. Although, we do see some women do same for some male artists, but surely not on the same level with their female counterparts. So whether they do it for them or not, females normally live flamboyant lifestyles and we are surely proud of them. They are our seniors, colleagues and juniors and we are happy seeing them excel in the industry.
In the industry, most of the female artists are now fair complexioned. Hardly would you find a dark coloured actress. Is it the producers that requires them to do such or it’s just a pre-requisite to be a top actress?
Well, I think it’s a matter of personal conviction. It’s not peculiar to the female artists alone; some male artists are also guilty of this act. We can also attribute it to bad company. Some believe that with a flashy colour, they’ll get easily noticed, so they just go for it. Some other believes that producers will notice them easily if they are fair in complexion, so they step up by toning. Also, some believe that since my friend is light skinned, I have to be light skinned too. But the truth is that, nobody, no producer will make it compulsory for you to be fair or light skinned before you can get a role. Let’s even take for example, if Antar Laniyan is playing the role of a father, it would be difficult to use a fair skinned lady as his daughter, same as if Ogun Majek, or Ogogo is acting as a father in a movie too, it would look absurd to cast a very fair skinned girl as the daughter. Therefore, being dark or light skinned have their different advantages and disadvantages
How many movies do you have to your credit?
To God be the glory, I have produced over 40 movies. At least I can boast of the highest number of comedy movies in Nigeria. Most of my movies are comedy and have been in production since 1996. My very first movie was produced in 1996 titled ‘Ebun Igbeyawo’ (Wedding Gift), my second movie ‘Faworaja’ was produced in 1999, ‘Nnkan Olomoba’ (2000), ‘Talo n gbemu’ (2001), ‘Eegun Mogaji’, ‘Obajobalo’, Mr President etc.
Can we have your say on poor movie subtitling and what you think can be done to have it improved?
That is one area that is giving us serious headache in the industry and we are trying our possible best to correct the menace.
Recently, TAMPAN executives, under the leadership of Dele Odule, had a meeting with all the movie marketers, led by Corporate Pictures, on how to improve on this. Rotor, I have to admit that both movie producers and marketers are the root cause of this. Let me give you an illustration, when I produce a movie, I do the editing and give it to the marketer. Most of these marketers have people that subtitle movies for them and, more often than not, the person’s subtitling may not be done professionally due to many jobs at hand; you’ll see that the job is rushed to meet release date deadline.
There is therefore no time for the producer or marketer to proof read. The marketer is focused on selling the finished work and make profit on his investment, while the producer also wants his/her financial gains back on time and the person doing the subtitling also has several other jobs awaiting his/her attention.
We have recently come to the realization that this is affecting the business negatively. So we have decided to tackle the menace by handling it professionally. People easily get discouraged because of the poor subtitling and this has turned us into laughing stocks in the society. You read some subtitles and you’ll nearly faint. We are not proud of this and are doing everything humanly possible to tame it.
We now have a guild of producers, guild of directors, guild of writers, guild of interpreters, guild of editors and the rest. So if you are not a member of the guild of producers, you will not be allowed to produce a movie. Likewise, if you are not a member of the guild of writers, you will not be allowed to write a script and so on. With the different guilds in place, we can control and tame the activities of everybody involved in a movie production.
For now, anybody with capital can just come in and produce a movie, but very soon, that would become impossible. In a short while, the new plans will be put in place, then, you’ll definitely see a lot of improvements in the way things are being run in the industry.
Describe your happiest day or moment in the industry?
I have had several happy moments but the most memorable of them all was the day I was given my visa to London by virtue of being an actor. The day my work gave me that recognition and earned me visa to London still stands out for me till date. That was in the year 2003.
What about your saddest day or occasion in the industry?
I’ve not really had a sad day, but there was an unforgettable event that occurred in 2004 when I was on the set of ‘Imported Lomo’. I shot for 3 days and I had about 15 crew members on my pay roll on that particular set. I also had seasoned acts like Baba Wande, Ayo Mogaji, Jide Kosoko, Madam Saje and host of others. We recorded with the best cameras available at that time, but unfortunately on the third day, we realized that the picture and voice quality were so poor that we had to start the shoot all over again. I felt so bad about that incident.
A lot of calamity happened in the industry recently where you lost some prominent members. Does this portray any bad omen for the industry?
I don’t see that as a bad omen. Year in, year out, many people die, not only in our industry, but in other professions too. Mr. Murphy, you cannot tell me that you have not lost a professional colleague in your field. It is just the fact that we are in the limelight, people make whatever happens to us news. So to me, it’s not a bad omen. We are all under God.
But a prophet predicted that many will still die….
That is not a prediction sir Murphy. It is like predicting that there will be sunshine after rain; that is obvious. Like I said earlier, it is normal for people to die not only in our industry, but everywhere.
Any last words to your fans?
They should continue to support us buying our films and also they should not stop the care and love they have for Baba Latin.
