THE PRODUCER OF (DESOLA ONIYANGI) KOFO AREGBESOLA WAS INTERVIEWED

By: Online Publisher's

Kofoworola Aregbesola

Can you tell us a bit about yourself?

I am Kofo Aregbesola, the CEO of “Dictakof Films” I am an actress and a film producer. I am also a fine artist, precisely a painter. I hailed from Akure, Ondo State Nigeria.

What is your educational background/qualification?

I am a University of Ibadan Masters’ Degree holder. I hold B.A Ed (Fine arts) from Obafemi Awolowo University for my first degree and M.Ed (Educational Management) in my second degree.

Have you always wanted to be an actress and how did you get into acting.

I am so passionate about my career. Due to the level of creativity in me, I have always wanted to practice arts in totality. Fine arts and performing arts are like siblings. They are products of creative arts. I am indeed grateful to God for given me the grace to excel in both fields.

I got into acting by joining the National Association of Nigerian Theatre Arts Practitioners (NANTAP) and Association of Nigeria Theatre Arts Practitioners (ANTP) respectively.

Tell us about your latest work which is centred around the Osun Osogbo Festival

The titile of the film is “Ebun Osun” the project was bankrolled by Osun State Government.

It was meant to create more awareness about Osun Osogbo Festival in order to promote tourism in the state. I also used the movie to showcase the rich cultural and traditional values of the “Yorubas”

What are the challenges you encountered while shooting

The film was shot in Osogbo. We had a little problem concerning the palace to use. Initially we intend using Atoja’s palace but there was a problem between His Highness and the government and there was a lot of tension over the issue hence I changed my mind because I thought that wasn’t the right time to take artistes, particularly the drummers into the palace for film shooting.

We had a bit of difficulty in getting another suitable palace. We tried Iragbiji but the king was not around, then we approached Elerin of Erin Osun. The king was wonderful to us. He embraced us with love and gave us every support we needed. I will forever be grateful to him.

Gaining access to Osun grove was another problem. Osun grove is now a world heritage center; hence gaining access to shoot a movie there was difficult. If not for the help of Yeye-Osun and the intervention of the government, it wouldn’t have been easy because the place is strictly man by the National Commission for Museums and Monuments.

How long have you been acting and your most memorable moment?

I started eleven years ago. My most memorable moment was when “Iyawo Aremo” hit the market. It was widely accepted and that made me extremely happy.

Can you mention some of the movies you have produced?

Iyawo Aremo 1, Iyawo Aremo 2, Koto kan, Agbo meji 1, Koto kan, Agbo meji 2, Desola Oniyangi and so on.

What are the challenges you usually encounter during production?

Atimes one of the important artiste (star) among one’s cast may not turn up, one have to look for an alternative within a short time.

Atimes the hoodlums do disturb us. They will want to extort money from us before they can allow us to shoot in their environment.

Noise pollution is another bottle neck. A-times we might be recording and a nearby house would put on his generator and the noise will be interfering into the recording, some people might even be playing loud music around the area and this would disturb us as well.

In your opinion, what are some of the challenges and issues affecting Nigeria Movie Industry

The major challenge is the issue of piracy and government seems to be handling it with levity. All these so call “Alaba boys” are ruining the industry with the pirated “10 in 1” DVD’s they are producing.

Film distributors/marketers are another cog in the wheel of progress. Majority of them are too greedy. They will be using various business names to release several movies into the market at once. That’s why we have about fifty or even sixty movies been released into the market at once. How can they make adequate profit under such condition?

Producers too should be a bit discrete about the number of films they produce in a year. A very reasonable producer should to exceed at most, two movies in a year. Any producer that is producing four or five movies in a year is a nuisance.

I want to seize this opportunity to appeal to marketers to start paying producers fee promptly. Majority of them usually sit on producers money after selling his or her films, atimes, we do involve police or even embark on litigation before we can collect our money from them. This is highly unfair.

The marketer that sold Iyawo Aremo six years ago is still owing me up till now, so also the one that marketed Koto kan, agbo meji three years ago. I also want to beg the marketers to be mindful of the English they write at the back of the jackets. Like my film Desola Oniyangi, without my knowledge, the market wrote a short synopsis at the back of the jacket. I discovered eight grammatical errors in four sentences, which made me really unhappy. I almost ran mad when I saw the jacket.

As per subtitling, the producers should be mindful of grammatical errors.

We should also try to improve on our quality of production.

Finally why should anyone buy or watch your latest movie?

I will encourage people to watch Ebun-Osun because the movie is educative, interesting, highly intriguing and rich in culture and tradition.

Thank you.