• Lateef Adedemeji has became famous for his significant role in the 2013 movie ‘Kudi Klepto’ by Yewande Adekoya.
• Over the past 15 years, he has appeared in more than 100 Nigerian films.
• Recently, he served as an executive producer for a Yoruba historical film called ‘Lisabi,’ which is now available on Netflix.
Adetola Abdullateef Adedimeji is a well-known Nigerian actor and filmmaker. He became famous for his significant role in the 2013 movie ‘Kudi Klepto’ by Yewande Adekoya.
Over the past 15 years, Lateef has appeared in more than 100 Nigerian films. Recently, he served as an executive producer for a Yoruba historical film called ‘Lisabi,’ which is now available on Netflix.
In an interview with The NATION’s ASSISTANT ENTERTAINMENT EDITOR, GBENGA BADA, he shared insights about the film and his relationship with his wife.
What inspired you to create a big historical film instead of a usual feel-good movie?
For me, I am so big on culture. I am so big on asa ati ise (customs and traditions), which is very key. And then I know how much we Nigerians in this part of the world celebrate heroes. And then what happens to our own heroes, we have a lot of them here, even as Nigerians, don’t even know their history. We don’t know their story. We don’t know anything about them.
So I feel it’s high time we started telling stories of those people and then after ‘Ayinla’ which is a biopic about the first biopic that I did, I came to that conclusion of telling biopic stories of people who are alive that have contributed a lot to the society. Or those that are gone that we don’t even know about.
After ‘Ayinla,’ I did about four other biopics. I did the one for the sitting president, I did ‘Ige.’ I’ve done biopics of people that are living. I’ve done about three people that are living and then ‘Ayinla’ is the first one about somebody that is no more. And ‘Lisabi’ is the second about someone that is no more and ‘Lisabi’ is quite big. That is the person that gave Egba the very first independence. It was the war that Lisabi fought that stopped the owo ori (tax paying), and that was the very first independence for the people of Egba. So I feel we should tell the story. I didn’t even know who Lisabi was until I started conducting the research. I just know that they will say, “Egba Omo Lisabi Egba Omo Lisabi (The Egbas, children of Lisabi).” I was like, “Who is this?” I thought it was one orisha (deity) or something. Well, when I dug into the story, I realised that this is somebody that lived and did all of these things. (I was like) “let’s tell the story.” and I’m glad a lot of people are accepting it. For so many people that do not know, they are getting to know that this is a real person and this is a reality.
I know you and your wife were producers on the project, was it your original idea or your wife’s idea to shoot ‘Lisabi’?
Yeah from the very beginning we had a film that we wanted to shoot at first but I thought to myself, I have done something that is from Ogun State which is ‘Ayinla.’ I feel I should still go back home and do one more if at all I’m gonna move ahead into telling some other stories. So, when I told her about ‘Lisabi’ she was skeptical at first, but I said, this is a story that would go far. This is a biopic and she loves the idea of me doing a biopic. I’m trying to create a niche for myself in that line and just do biopics of people that have been, those that are no more and all of that. And she was like, “It’s not a bad idea. Let’s try it.” and then that’s how she bought into the idea. “Okay, let’s do ‘Lisabi’ now. No problem. If that is what you want to do I know when you are bent on doing something there is something about it that you want to bring out.” And then we went ahead.
Did you both take part in choosing the characters, and what influenced your decisions for each one?
The casting was done by Mo Bimpe, myself and then Niyi Akinmolayan the director. From the outset when we thought about Olori Ilari from the writing of the story, we knew and we were certain that he was going to be Ibrahim Chatta because I know he is the one who can pull that character for me. It’s just about him. So from the outset, I knew he was going to be Ibrahim. Me and Debo, we have a very close relationship. If you go back to ‘Ayinla,’ you will see that it is the same line of friendship, we just flow naturally.
How does it feel knowing the movie isn’t part of the global stage?
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