Veteran actress, Rose Odika is the Governor of the Theater Arts and Motion Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria (TAMPAN) in Oyo State and one of the few actresses in the Nigerian movie industry who have spent at least 30 years on stage. In this interview by FEMI OGUNTAYO, the veteran speaks on why the people need to celebrate actors and actresses while they are still alive and also why she is not married and other issues.
I am doing my second term as the governor of the Theater Arts and Motion Pictures Practitioners Association of Nigeria (TAMPAN) in Oyo State. We just concluded our conference in TAMPAN for 2019 and Oyo State came first again in our drama competition for the second consecutive time. This means, we are now in the book of records of TAMPAN as the first branch to do that, because if a state wins the competition, it automatically has the chance to host the next conference. We won that of 2018 in Ogun State, so we hosted 2019, now that we have won again in 2019, we will be hosting the 2020 conference. So I thank God and I am happy about that.
Another new thing about me is that I will be celebrating my 30 years on stage to God’s glory; I will be celebrating it in April this year and I want all my fans and lovers worldwide to come together and celebrate me, because that is the only thing that will make me happy. People do not appreciate us when we are alive, we should be celebrated when we are still alive not when we are dead. All the money you will spend when we are sick, spend it on us now so we won’t fall sick. So, come April 2020, I will be celebrating my 30 years on stage.
Another thing people do not know about me is that I have given my life to Christ totally and I am working for God now. I now head a ministry where we pray. It’s not a church, like many take it to be but a prayer ministry for women, to come together and pray for our families, for our nation and for ourselves. We call it Women – Pray Until Something Happens (Women PUSH). It meet every first Tuesday of the month in Ibadan for now. So, I will also be celebrating my one year in the ministry alongside my 30 years on stage. Another thing is that I am still not married (laughs).
Why are you still not married, since your last marriage, even when you are now born-again and runs a ministry?
I only had one marriage that did not work and I never had another one for about 15 years but I don’t want to publicise my marriage. Yes, there is someone already in the making because if you must do God’s work, you must have someone by your side and that is going to be a silent one. But for now I am still for God, I am married to God.
So, are we expecting a marriage soon?
By God’s grace
When and how did you join the movie industry?
Professionally I joined the movie industry in 1989. However, I was discovered during my secondary school days by my vice principal then, Dr Mrs. Ero, who saw it in me from the school’s Drama group, that I have got some talents, I was advised to go into acting fully and I took it up. I started with Odu Themes Meridian, owned by Professor Bode Sowande.
Do you still remember people you started together with then?
Yes, a lot of them. Funsho Adeolu met me there; I met Clarion Chukuwura there, not as students but as people who I acted together with, because it was a stage thing. The late Sam Loko was there, Professor Ayo Akinwale was also among people I met there.
You are Igbo, but you do more of Yoruba movies, why that?
Yes, I am from Delta State. I am vast in the Yoruba genre of the movie industry but that does not limit me. As an actress I can act in any language but I am fluent in Yoruba and English. However, just give me the script, give me the time, I will act in any language. If I could act in French while I was younger, tell me I won’t. I was in the French group and we acted plays in French, those days in secondary school. So, I don’t believe there is a language I cannot act in as an actress.
So, I am not limited to Yoruba. Unfortunately or fortunately, the Yoruba films brought me into limelight and they are the ones that give me jobs. An Igbo producer has never called me to come and act and I refised. You can only act in jobs that you are offered. I have featured in so many English soap operas, like Wale Adenuga’s Super Story, I was in ‘The Thunder’, I was in ‘Edge of Paradise’ by Debby Odutayo, the RTV man, I have also acted with Mr and Mrs Asamu, I was in ‘Together we are one’ and many other English soap operas.
How would you compare Nollywood when you started to what we have now in the present day Nollywood?
Well, comparing the two, I will say we are progressing but we need to work harder. We don’t really have those blockbuster movies like we used to have in those days anymore. When you can still lay hands on one film like, Jeleosimi, Orun mooru, Efunsetan Aniwura, we don’t have films like that anymore. Now you just do a film, under six months it is forgotten. We should work more on our stories; we should work more on epics that can last; films that have second hand values.
Any upcoming projects, like movies?
