By Aremu Sosanya
A thespian nollywood actor, Lateef Adedimeji has revealed that the most challenging role he ever played was to act as 'Ayinla'.
'Ayinla' is a film that tells the story of Nigerian musician, Ayinla Omowura, who used Apala music to address issues of the contemporary society - commending and criticizing various governmental and individual acts.
The movie was directed by Tunde Kelani, starring various actors like Lateef Adedimeji; Omowumi Dada; Bimbo Manuel; Ade Laoye; Kunle Afolayan; Bimbo Ademoye; Mr Macaroni and others.
Lateef Adedimeji who acted as Ayinla in the movie, in an interview with the Nation revealed that he saw acting as 'Ayinla' most challenging since he started his acting career about 15 years ago.
Adedimeji who joined the Nigeria’s film industry 15 years ago, is a Mass communication graduate of Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ago Iwoye and he has featured in over 100 significant films including Ayinla amongst many others.
Speaking on the Ayinla movie, the thespian said the most challenging role he had taken as an actor was to act as Ayinla
He revealed that the story had impacted his real life by placing him on another level entirely.
"The movie, Ayinla placed me on another level entirely. The story itself teaches me a whole lot. It shows that when you are famous in life, be rest assured that things that don’t make sense will come to you. So, you must be prepared on how to attend to issues and learn how to react to every situation that comes your way".
"If Ayinla had taken caution at a time somebody upset him, he might probably still be alive because when you are somebody every dog can choose to bark at you.
Speaking on the lessons he learnt from it, Adedimeji who is also known as 'Crying Machine' said, "it teaches me that I need to be calm in every situation. It’s not everything that people say to you that you must react to, just overlook it and move on with your life".
On his foray into acting, the Ogun State born artiste said, "It started so many years ago, in my JSS 2.
Basically, I was trained by Non-Governmental Organisation, ‘Community Life Project (CLP)’ in Isolo, Lagos. In those days, there is limited accessibility to television for grassroots people so there is a need to sensitize people especially the youth about HIV/AIDs, STDs and other diseases. So, CLP goes to secondary schools to pick the best students and train them to be peer educators through eighteen topics so that they can impart the knowledge to their fellow youths at the stage of puberty.
I was lucky to be part of the trainees which passed information to people via dance, music and acting. So, that was how my acting career started and I was with them for seven years. After that, instead of me studying Theatre Art at the university, I felt it’s would be a total waste of another four years so I decided to opt for the Mass Communication department to study Public Relation and Broadcast at Olabisi Onabanjo University, Ogun State.
"I came out of school and I became a presenter on TV for like five years with Nigezie. So, when my acting became demanding I had to drop my broadcast world for acting.
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