{"id":644342,"date":"2019-04-26T13:32:18","date_gmt":"2019-04-26T13:32:18","guid":{"rendered":"
\"Yemi<\/div>

Yemi Shodimu, a veteran actor and lead charact"},"modified":"2019-04-26T13:32:18","modified_gmt":"2019-04-26T13:32:18","slug":"actor-dont-mistake-me-for-cultist-because-of-oleku-movie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ghanamma.com\/2019\/04\/26\/actor-dont-mistake-me-for-cultist-because-of-oleku-movie\/","title":{"rendered":"Actor: Don\u2019t mistake me for cultist because of \u201cOleku\u201d movie"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\"Yemi<\/div>\n

Yemi Shodimu, a veteran actor and lead character in the timeless movie \u201cOleku\u201d, on Friday said many Nigerians took him for a cultist, a role r he acted in the movie.<\/p>\n

Shodimu acted the character of Ajani, a cult member in `Oleku\u2019 produced by Tunde Kelani in 1997.<\/p>\n

He told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the character was not his true personality.<\/p>\n

Shodimu, also a television presenter and movie director, said that Nigerians should be able to differentiate an actor\u2019s personality from his role in a play.<\/p>\n

\u201cSome people cannot still differentiate between Yemi Shodimu in reality and Ajani in the play, `Oleku\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cImagine somebody stopping me a couple of weeks back, giving certain signs and expecting me to respond; I got to know that those signs were for a particular secret cult which I acted as a member in `Oleku\u2019.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe truth is that I have never been anywhere close to being a cultist apart from being a palm wine drinking club member which I also portrayed in the play.<\/p>\n

\u201cI had to study that particular role well before being able to act it well,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Shodimu said that the greatest challenge he had in the movie was understanding Ajani\u2019s character well to depict the exact role Oleku\u2019s producer wanted.<\/p>\n

According to him, understanding the role involved much research.<\/p>\n

\u201cBefore I could interpret the role well, I did a lot of research into what life was like in the University of Ibadan and other universities because I needed to imbibe the character of Ajani in the university.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt took a long time to get into that character, it took a lot of energy to retain it and it took a much longer time to get out of it.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was really a challenging one for me; the movie was released decades ago and we never knew it was going to be that big.<\/p>\n

\u201cI feel we shot the movie earlier than we should because if it were now, we would be telling a different story as it will further realign us with our culture,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

NAN reports that `Oleku\u2019 birthed the fashion of knee-length `Iro and buba\u2019 called Oleku in Yorubaland.<\/p>\n

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